Another World
by Proteus-92
Summary: Thirty years have passed since Sozin's Comet arrived, and the Fire Nation launched the War against the world. But far, far beyond the western sea, there lies another world, one that has never heard of the War, or the Four Nations, or the Avatar...
1. Discovery

The small boat glided slowly across the smooth, glassy surface of the ocean. This boat was different from many of the boats in the Great Sea- rather than wood, it was made of metal, and rather than sails, it was powered by an "engine," those curious machines that allowed a boat to sail regardless of where the wind blew. However, none of the five men aboard the boat was the owner, and in truth, the five men could never hope to afford a boat like this, whether they paid individually or altogether. But they had been loaned this boat for a special purpose- a merchant guild had asked them to map out an uncharted section of the ocean, an area known as "the Forbidden Sea." Ordinarily, only the most foolhardy would have accepted such a task, but the guild had promised to pay them handsomely for their services, and had even paid half of the reward up front before the men had departed. Once the men completed their task, they would receive the second half of their reward upon their return.

One man stood near the bow of the ship, scanning the horizon through a small spyglass. He had been doing this for the last two hours, since the sun had risen that morning. Like the last few mornings, it had been cold at dawn, but the man figured that if today was like any other day, it would become very hot by noon. Just then, another man approached the bow and asked, "Anything yet, Sato?"

Sato looked back over his shoulder at the other man. "Nope, sorry Takashi. I'll tell you what, though- if today's anything like the last few days, we probably won't find anything."

A third man approached the bow with a fishing rod slung over his shoulder. As he sat down and cast his line, he said, "Well, we should be grateful. It makes out job a lot easier."

Takashi then said, "I wouldn't do that if I were you, Byakuya. We're not out of sharkgator waters just yet." Byakuya replied, "You know, I heard sharkgator is actually pretty tasty. If I'm lucky I might catch one, or maybe one of those giant whalesquids I've heard about."

"Don't say that so loud. Things have been going fine as it is, and I don't want to give the sharkgators any ideas."

"Byakuya, you might want to put that away," Sato then said. "I can see an island out there." Takashi commanded, "Let me see," and Sato gave him the spyglass. He brought it up to his eye; sure enough, there was a line of brown rising slightly above the blue of the sea. "I need to tell Daichi to get us to full speed and Kenji to steer us… um, thirty degrees east." He handed the spyglass to Byakuya. "Here. I'll be right back." Takashi walked to the stern of the ship. Byakuya then looked through the spyglass and said, "Well, I'll be damned. There really is something out there." He then sighed, and picked up his fishing rod. "I guess breakfast will have to wait."

* * *

About half an hour later, the boat dropped anchor just off the shore of the land. The island had been much larger than anyone had anticipated, but worse, it was surrounded by sheer cliffs with no obvious way to climb them. So, the men had steered the boat around the island until eventually coming to a beach on the western half that sloped gradually up to the height of the cliffs. Once anchored, the five boarded a smaller, wooden boat, and rowed to the beach. Once the rowboat landed on the beach, they disembarked. Takashi looked around; there were no plants to be found, from what he could see at least, and other than the sounds of the ocean and the movement of his group, the beach was dead silent. "There's nothing here," Sato said. Then, Byakuya said, "I don't know about you, but this place gives me the creeps."

"Hey, focus," Takashi said. "We have a job to do."

"So, what are we doing?" Daichi asked.

"The guild said we had to map out any islands we came across, take note of its local wildlife and inhabitants, if there are any, and then come back."

"Okay," Kenji said. "Then let's get started."

"Hold on just a second. I think we should scout this place out before we get down to business." He began to trudge up the slope of the beach. As he walked, he noticed something very odd. There were no people on the island, but that had also been the case with the few islands he and the others had mapped out before. However, those islands at least had some plants and animals. Here, there were no animals- no small animals like skunksquirrels or pricklesnakes, no birds, not even insects. There weren't even any plants- no grass, no trees, no bushes, nothing. The only thing on the island seemed to be the coarse sand of the beach, which gradually gave way to dry, cracked earth. "This is creepy," he heard Byakuya say. "Why aren't there any animals?"

"There aren't any animals because there aren't any plants," Kenji replied.

"So why aren't there any plants?"

"Who knows? Maybe it's too cold, or there aren't enough nutrients in the soil."

"If you ask me, I'd say it's because this place doesn't get enough rain," Sato interjected.

Several moments passed as the men trudged up the slope. Daichi said, "Okay, there's nothing here. Now can we start mapping out this place so we can get out of here?"

Takashi replied, "Not yet. We should check the whole island first." The group reached the top of the slope, to be met with a sight so incredible, there was now way it could be real. He rushed forward to the edge of a sudden drop and stopped. The others joined him, staring slack jawed at the sight before them. Finally, Byakuya said, "Um… wow."

**Another World**

**By: Proteus-92**

Chapter I: Discovery

_ Fourteen years later…_

The two boys were the only people in the courtyard of the school. In the center of the courtyard was a boy with a deep red shirt and black pants, with black hair and golden-brown eyes; his companion, a boy with a dark green shirt and equally dark green pants, and with brown hair and brown eyes, leaned against a wall along the edge of the courtyard, watching the boy in red go through his exercises: step, punch; step, punch; step, turn, punch, kick. The boy in red paused for a moment, and asked his companion, "Aren't you going to warm up too, Shinji?" The boy in green shook his head. "Not right now, Li. Remember how mad your headmaster got the last time I used Shi Tui here?"

"Oh, that's right. They had to close the school for three weeks so they could repair the dojo." He paused. "But I thought your teacher wanted you to practice every day."

"I do. I just don't do it here."

Li widened his stance, his feet at shoulder width, and took a deep breath. Then, he swung one of his arms, forming a small wall of fire that quickly dispersed. He repeated his action with his other arm, forming another fire wall, then his first, alternating between his two arms, a wall of fire following every swing. Finally, he punched the air, and a massive jet of fire ignited from his knuckles before rapidly dispersing. Li finally exhaled, a small fireball escaping his mouth.

Once Li had finished his demonstration, Shinji said, "I don't know about you, but to me, throwing fire around like that seems kind of… dangerous."

Li looked over at Shinji. "Well, Ci Quan _is_ a dangerous technique, and the first thing they taught me here was that it should only ever be used as a last resort." He then said, "You're one to talk. Making fire is dangerous, but throwing around rocks that weigh twice as much as you do isn't?"

"Hey, Shi Tui was originally for construction, you know." Shinji pushed himself off the wall. "Do you want to head over to my place, Li?"

"Um, I don't know Shinji… I really think I should finish this up first. And don't you have to get back to your store?"

"I closed up shop before I came over here. And come on Li, haven't you spent the last two hours training?"

"…I guess so."

"Exactly. Now come on." And with that, the two boys left the school courtyard and hurried up the road.

Shinji and Li lived in the port town of Misato, on the eastern coast of Huan. Misato was the second largest city on the continent, just after Fujisawa on the western coast. The two cities were separated by the expansive terrain of Huan, punctuated by trading posts and the occasional mining town. But it hadn't always been this way. In the past, Misato had been little more than a small fishing town, but over the past thirty years, thanks in no small part to an explosive growth in population, the small fishing village grew into a prosperous port city. Every day, great steel ships, belching fire and black smoke, departed from the harbor, carrying raw materials and workers to the islands of Shimoji in the southeast; at the same time, others returned, carrying newly produced goods and workers longing for home.

By the waters of the harbor were the docks, the lifeblood of Misato, surrounded by numerous markets and warehouses, where goods were sold and raw materials were stored for exportation. Surrounding the markets sprawled homes, schools, and various other buildings; gradually, the buildings become less dense as one climbs up the hills surrounding the harbor, just as Shinji and Li were doing now. They passed very few people- most would be down at the markets at this time of day, either shopping or running their stores. Eventually, they came to Shinji's house, a small, one-story building built of wood. Li and his family lived a few houses up the road. Shinji climbed the small steps to his front door and pushed it open and stepped inside. He walked inside for a few steps before he realized there were no footsteps following his; Shinji glanced back over his shoulder to see Li standing at the foot of the porch steps. He walked back to the door and asked, "Um, Li? What are you doing?"

Li replied, "Common courtesy says that I'm not allowed to enter someone's house without their permission."

"Li, come on inside." At this, Li began to climb the steps up to the house; Shinji turned and began to go back inside. Behind him, he heard Li say, "Okay, we're here. What're we going to do now?"

"I don't know. I was thinking we could get something to eat, and then we could go and play some rockball outside." They entered the main area of the house, a fairly large room with a small, short table in the center. In the wall across from them was another wooden door that led to the alleyway behind the house, alongside a small wooden window. On the left was a third wooden door that led to the pantry. On the right were two sliding doors of wood and thin rice paper- the mats where Shinji slept were behind the doors on the right. There were no mats behind the door on the left.

Shinji walked over to the pantry and pulled the door open. As he searched around inside, he asked Li, "Is there anything you want?"

"No, thank you." Li then asked, "Shinji, what's that?" Shinji glanced back to see Li pointing up to a rectangular outline in the ceiling. Shinji grabbed a piece of salted meat and replied, "Oh, that just goes up to the attic." He closed the pantry and walked to Li's side. "You want to see what's up there?"

"No, that's okay. I was just wondering…"

"It's okay if you want to." Shinji grabbed the string hanging down from the rectangle and pulled- at once, a steep wooden staircase swung down and hit the floor with a loud thud. The sudden sound made Li jump. Shinji was unshaken, and took a bite from his meat before climbing up the staircase.

"Um… Shinji? Are you sure you're allowed to be up there?" Li asked.

"Li, it's fine. All that's up here is just some old stuff."

"Well… if you say so…" Li climbed up the narrow steps to the attic as well. At once, Li lit a small flame in his hand, driving away the darkness of the attic. "Be careful with that," Shinji said, noticing the flame. The two looked around- a few dust-covered boxes were scattered around, but other than them, and a naginata hanging from two hooks mounted on the wall, the attic was empty. "Okay, we've seen what's up here. Can we go now?"

"Come on, Li. We might find something up here." Shinji began to make his way between two boxes when he heard a rustling sound by his feet. He looked down to see that he was standing on a few loose sheets of paper. He bent down to examine the paper, mumbling to himself, "What's this?" On the paper's surface was drawn an odd shape- to Shinji, it looked like a small flame, turned onto its left side. But most striking was that the "bell" of the "flame" seemed to be shattered with a great hole in the center, surrounded by what looked like jagged, broken teeth.

Li bent down and peered over Shinji's shoulder. "What have you got there, Shinji?"

"I'm not sure."

"Hold on, it looks like there's another one." Li bent down as well, and picked up another piece of paper. After inspecting it for a moment, he then said, "This is a map," and showed it to Shinji. And indeed, drawn on the paper was a map, depicting all the major lands of the Great Sea. At the top of the page was drawn a rough oval shape, with two hook shaped peninsulas coming off, both pointing to the south- the nation of Huan, with the rough rectangle of Sage Island off the southwest coast; to the east was the rough triangle that was Dokuro; in the center of the page were drawn seven irregular shapes that made up the primary Zhong Islands; further west was a crescent alongside a narrow sliver- the two islands of Shimoji; and finally, in the southwest corner was drawn the rough, upside-down L-shape that was Jia.

But there was something… different about this map. In most other maps, the southeast corner was occupied only by empty sea, but here, the space was occupied by that same strange shape depicted on the other paper. In addition, a red line had been drawn on the paper, connecting the southernmost island of Zhong with the mysterious landmass to the southeast. Eventually, Li said, "Hold on, there's something on the back too." He turned over the paper, to see five names written in places all across the back, and he began to read off each one: "Byakuya, Daichi, Sato, Kenji, and Takashi."

"Takashi? That was my dad's name."

"So, this map belongs to your dad?"

"It _belonged_ to him. He left home a little bit after I was born." Shinji looked down at the paper he was holding and turned it over as well- sure enough, those same five names were on the back of that paper as well.

"What happened, Shinji?"

"I'm not a hundred percent sure what happened. But, a few years ago, my dad and these guys went out in the Southern Sea to map out islands for some merchant's guild in Zhong. They came back after a few weeks, but then, everybody who'd gone out there began disappearing one by one. My dad was the last one- he just disappeared, a couple months before I was born. All he left behind was a letter to my mom. Do you want to see it?"

"Um… sure, I guess." Shinji quickly climbed down the stairs. He disappeared for several minutes before returning with yet another paper. He bent down and held out the paper so that Li could read it:

_My dearest Rin,_

_I hear the land calling to me. The others have heard it as well, but they were unable to resist its call. Now, only I remain, but I fear that the call has become too strong for me to resist. I cannot imagine the heartbreak I will cause by leaving you and our child, but that land is waiting for me. Even now, I hear its voice inside my head, singing to me, calling my name. There is only one way to end it. I am sorry._

_Takashi_

Shinji looked down at the paper he had been holding, the one depicting the mysterious landmass to the southwest. He stared at it intently, examining every contour of its coastline- as he did, he felt as though he could hear… whispering inside his head. He couldn't quite make out what the voice was saying but—

"Shinji?" Shinji was suddenly snapped out of his thoughts. "What is it, Li?"

"I've been trying to get your attention for the last few minutes."

"Oh. I was just thinking, what if there's something out there?"

"Huh?"

"Well, what if my dad and those other guys found something out there?"

"Shinji, that's crazy." Li held up the map and pointed to the landmass in the southwest. "That's right in the middle of the Forbidden Sea. Nothing good ever comes out of there. Maybe your dad found something dangerous."

"Li, if you find something, and you don't want anyone else to find it, you don't leave a map. I mean, what if he found something important?"

"…I guess that might be true. But what are we supposed to do about it?"

"I think we should get a boat, head down there, and see what we can find."

"Okay, but how are we supposed to—"

"Don't give me that, Li. You said yourself that your family has at least three boats from working in the shipyards. But we don't have to worry about that right away. First, we have to cross overland to get to Fujisawa and find a ferry to Sage Island."

"But why… ugh, fine. But I have to tell my parents first." Li paused for a moment, before having a sudden realization. "What about your store? And what'll happen if my parents won't let me go?"

"Don't worry about me- I can handle things on my end. But I'm sure your parents will let you go, too."


	2. The Road

Chapter II: The Road

"So tell me Shinji, why are we going to Sage Island?" Li asked. The next morning had come, and he and Shinji were walking along the path that led through the hills surrounding Misato. Three days had passed since Shinji and Li discovered the mysterious map, and in that time, Shinji had made all the preparations for leaving- he closed the store, and bought all the supplies he and Li would need for the journey. But what came next would be the hard part- he would have to convince Li's parents to go with him. By some miracle, he did, and that morning, with two large packs slung across their shoulder, the two set out.

Shinji answered Li's question with another question: "Li, do you remember my friend Saya?"

"Um, yeah, I remember her. But I thought she went away."

"She did. And she ended up on Sage Island."

"How?"

"Huh?" Shinji paused for a few moments before having a sudden realization. "Oh, that's right! You were in Shimoji when Saya moved away. Well, do you remember how Saya could move water without having to touch it? What happened was that a couple of Water Sages came to town, looking for people who could do that. They called it… Long Li Wu- the Dragon's Gift. Eventually, they came up to Saya's house, and they asked her if she wanted to join. Well, she said she wanted to go."

"Why?"

"She told me it was because the Water Sages have one of the best schools in the entire world. So, she went with them, and now she's on Sage Island." That was a lie. But Shinji decided he would rather not have Li know the real reason why Saya left.

Li, apparently, accepted Shinji's explanation. "Okay, but that doesn't really answer my question."

"We'll be traveling by boat most of the time, right? So we could use someone who knows Long Li Wu. Saya knows it, and I know where she is, and that's why we're going to Sage Island."

"Oh, I get it now. I guess that makes a lot of sense." There was a brief pause before Li asked, "So, what happens after we find Saya?"

"Well, I convinced your parents to send us a boat once we find Saya. Once we find her, we'll send a letter home, wait a week or two until the boat arrives, and then we can head out."

"Hey that reminds me, I've been meaning to ask you how you convinced my parents to let me go with you."

"You know, it actually wasn't too hard…" And Shinji began to recount the events of the days before.

* * *

_With care, Shinji tapped a nail into the board beneath with the broad side of his rock hammer. Then, he switched to the hammer's head, and pounded the hammer through the wood, into the doorframe beneath. "Okay, I'm done on my side!" Shinji called out, as the hammer in his hand crumbled away into nothing. He heard Li call out from the other side of the store, "Hold on just a second! I just have to—"There was a loud bang, followed instantly by a cry of pain. Shinji hurried over to the other side of the store, to see Li bent over, clutching his hand in pain. "It's okay Li, I'll finish up for you," Shinji said, before picking up Li's dropped hammer and hammering the last nail into the wooden window frame behind it. When he was finished, Shinji looked back and asked, "Are you alright, Li?"_

_ "Yeah, I'll be okay Shinji."_

_ "Well, we're almost done. I just have to do one last thing and we can call it a day." Shinji and Li circled around to the front of the store; once they reached the front, Shinji looked at the store forlornly and asked, "Now isn't this a sad sight?" Shinji's store had been a small but prosperous produce store at the fringe of the marketplace, run by Shinji's family for nearly four generations. Shinji's great grandfather had built the store with his own two hands, and worked out a contract with a group of local farmers that held until this very day. Now, with its doors and windows boarded up, the store held no trace of the prosperity it once had._

_ "Li, where's the ink and brush?" Shinji asked._

_ "It's right over there," Li replied, pointing to the end of the storefront. Shinji walked over, took the brush, dipped it into the jet black ink in the small bowl next to it, and painted the characters for "For Sale" over the boards nailed over the main door of the store. "Alright, we're done," Shinji said, resting the brush on the ground again. "You should probably go Li."_

_ "Are you sure? You don't need me to stay with you?" Li asked._

_ "It's fine, Li. I need to stay with the store in case a potential buyer shows up."_

_ "Okay then. I'm gonna go. I'll see you later Shinji."_

_ "Bye, Li." Shinji sat down at the edge of the storefront. He watched the people go by- some looked at the closed store curiously, but none stopped or expressed any interest in purchasing it. Eventually however, Shinji heard someone ask him, "Shinji? What happened to your store?" Shinji looked up- in front of him stood an old man with beige clothes, a straw hat, and white hair. "Oh, good morning Matsuda," Shinji said. "I had to close up the store."_

_ Matsuda put the bag slung over his shoulder on the ground and sat down on the storefront next to Shinji. "So, what happened? Costs get too high? Someone force you out of business?"_

_ Shinji shook his head. "No, it wasn't anything like that. Some urgent business came up, and my friend Li and I are gonna be in Sage Island for a few weeks. I have to sell the store since I don't know anyone who could watch it for me."_

_ "Well, why didn't you just ask me? I could've done it."_

_ "I hadn't thought about that. But you should've come sooner- then I wouldn't have had to board up the store."_

_ Just then, another voice asked, "'For Sale'? Did that Ayanami guy down the road force you out of business, Shinji?"_

_ "No, it's nothing like that Kaji," Matsuda replied. "Shinji has some business to take care of and he has to leave town for a few weeks."_

_ "Well if you were leaving town, why didn't you ask me and Asuka to watch the store for you?"_

_ "Hey Shinji, you closing the store?" Another voice asked._

_ "Yeah, what gives? That's our livelihood you're throwing away." Yet another voice asked. Soon, Shinji found himself surrounded by people clamoring to know about the fate of the store, and their livelihoods._

_

* * *

_

"So, then what happened?" Li asked. A great deal of time had passed, and the two had set up camp for the night, a short ways off the side of the road.

"Well, the farmers who deliver to the store agreed to watch the place for me while we're gone."

"So, you didn't sell it?"

"No. I know we could've used the money."

"Don't worry about it too much. But… would you mind skipping ahead to when you convinced my parents to let me go with you?"

"Not at all. Like I said, it wasn't too hard…"

* * *

_Shinji had just finished packing his bag. Inside, he'd included a sleeping bag, a lantern, all the money he could scrounge up, some medicine, and a map of the main lands of the Great Sea. He held onto his father's map- he would need it for what he was about to do. Leaving his bag, he left his house __and walked a short ways down the road, to Li's house. He climbed the short steps of the porch and knocked on the door. A few moments passed before the door opened, a tall man with black hair and simple red clothes behind it. "Shinji," the man said. "I've heard what happened to your store. Is everything alright?"_

_ "Everything's fine Mr. Jiang. Actually, I was hoping I could talk to you and Mrs. Jiang about something."_

_ "Of course. Please, come in Shinji." Mr. Jiang stepped aside to allow Shinji into the house. The inside of Li's house was much like the inside of Shinji's, with a few differences- rather than two sliding doors, there were three, and a small stove had been pushed into the back corner. A woman, Mrs. Jiang, was boiling a pot of tea over the stove._

_ "Please, have a seat Shinji." Shinji sat down at the short table at the center of the room, with Mr. Jiang sitting opposite from him. Mrs. Jiang approached and took a seat as well, placing the pot of tea on the table. "Shinji, would you like some tea before you begin?"_

_ "No, that's okay. I'd rather get this over with sooner." Mrs. Jiang poured two cups of tea, one for herself and one for Mr. Jiang. She took a sip before asking, "What did you want to talk about with us?"_

_ "Well, you've probably heard that some urgent business came up, and I have to go to Sage Island for the next few weeks. Really, that's only part of what's going on."_

_ "Really?" Mr. Jiang asked. "Perhaps you would like to explain what's going on in full."_

_ "Mr. Jiang, Mrs. Jiang, you might have heard from my mother that my father was a fisherman. But, he also worked part-time as a cartographer for a merchant guild in the Zhong Islands. A few days ago, Li and I found a map in my attic." Shinji pulled the map from his pocket and laid it flat on the table for Mr. and Mrs. Jiang to see. "My dad made this map about fourteen years ago, before he disappeared."_

_ Both Mr. and Mrs. Jiang examined the map closely. "What is this?" Mrs. Jiang asked._

_ "My dad and his co-workers found some sort of island in the Forbidden Sea."_

_ "I see that. And you think there's something out there?" Mr. Jiang asked._

_ "Well, I don't know. I only found this map two days ago. My mom never liked to talk about what my dad did for a living- she always thought that something he found out there is what made him disappear. But he left this behind. There might be… something there."_

_ Neither Mr. Jiang nor Mrs. Jiang spoke for some time. Eventually, Mrs. Jiang asked, "This is why you're leaving? Because of some… map?"_

_ "Well, not just because of a map. This was the last thing my father left behind before he disappeared- if I can't find him there, maybe I can find out the reason why he left."_

_ "So," Mr. Jiang began, "if you're going to this island, why are you telling people you have business in Sage Island?"_

_ "I tell people that because it's true. Before I go to the island, I have to go there first."_

_ "Why?"_

_ "Well, do you remember Saya?"_

_ "You mean that girl from across the street? The one who went with the Water Sages?"_

_ "Yeah, that's the one. I want to go to Sage Island, and see if I can convince her to go with us. After that, then we'll go to this island."_

_ "I see," Mr. Jiang said. "But what does this have to do with us?"_

_ Shinji didn't answer right away, and instead asked, "Where's Li?"_

_ "He's at the school, training," Mrs. Jiang replied. _This isn't good_, Shinji thought to himself. Li apparently hadn't told his parents anything over the last two days. Shinji tried to steel himself as best as he could before saying, "I wanted to ask you if you would let Li come with me."_

_ Neither Mr. Jiang nor Mrs. Jiang responded for several moments. Eventually, Mrs. Jiang said, "I… I understand that this… mission of yours holds a great deal of personal value. But Li… this has nothing to do with him. He has his studies to worry about, and he can't be-"_

_ Mr Jiang stopped her by resting his hand on her shoulder. "Sun, perhaps we should let Li go with Shinji."_

_ Mrs. Jinag looked back at her husband. "But Chen…"_

_ "Sun, I know you wanted to send Li to the school in Shimoji- I wanted it too, but it cost too much. And maybe this would be for the best- letting him travel and see the world would do the boy some good. Roku only knows that our people have spent too much time hiding on Shimoji. And imagine how proud you would be if Li and Shinji _were_ able to find something."_

_ "But…" Mrs. Jiang sighed. "I guess you're right, Chen. The least Li could do is learn more about the people of the Great Sea." She looked over at Shinji. "Well Shinji, if it's okay with Li… then Li can go with you."_

_ Shinji stood up, and bowed. "Thank you. I can't tell you how much this means to me."_

_ "Well, I suppose I should pack some thing for Li," Mrs. Jiang said, and stood up as well._

_ "Actually, I was hoping I could ask you one last favor," Shinji said, sitting down at the short table._

_ "Certainly," Mr. Jiang replied._

_ Shinji put his finger on the map, right where Misato would be."Well, Li and I can get to Sage Island no problem on foot, but there's one problem…" He dragged his finger over the length of Huan to where Fujisawa would be, and then over to Sage Island. "Once we get there, we won't be able to reach the island." Shinji dragged his finger from Sage Island all the way down to the island in the lower right corner. "I was hoping, if it was alright with you, if you could lend us a boat so we could get to the island."_

_ "We can lend you a boat. When you two find your friend, just send us a letter and we'll have someone bring a boat to you."_

_

* * *

_

_ "_Wow," Li said, "was it really that easy?"

"Well… yeah," Shinji replied. "If it hadn't, we probably wouldn't be here right now."

"You know, I thought that my dad might want me to go with you. I was more worried about my mom, though- I figured she would be the one to give you trouble."

"I guess I just got lucky." Several moments passed before Li asked, "Shinji, do you have any idea how long it will take to reach Sage Island?"

"Well, inland, Huan's pretty flat. If we don't hit any snags, my guess is that we'll reach Fujisawa in about two weeks. After that, it shouldn't take too long at all to reach Sage Island- at most, it should only take a day, two at the very most." Shinji then dug into his pack, and pulled out his sleeping bag. "It's getting late. We should get some sleep- we'll have to leave early if we want to get to Fujisawa anytime soon."

"I guess you're right." Li pulled out his own sleeping bag, and with a wave of his hand, the campfire was extinguished. "Goodnight Shinji."

"Goodnight Li."

* * *

Shinji and Li set out at dawn the next morning. The edges of the farms that rested behind the hills of Misato gave way to a dense forest. As the two walked down the path, side-by-side, Li took several deep breaths, and then asked, "Is it just me, or does the air out here seem… _different_ somehow?"

"Now that you mention it, yeah, it does. It's probably because we're away from all the smoke from the docks." Several moments passed in silence before Li asked, "Shinji? What do you think is on that island?"

Shinji shrugged. "I don't know. He never told my mom, and like I said, she never liked to talk about his jobs for the guild. But you know, sometimes, really late at night, I'd hear her talking about him. I don't know who she was talking to- maybe him leaving made her start to lose it, too. She'd always say that he was never right in the head when he came back from that job- said he always heard voices, even when no one was there, and he had weird dreams every night. Then, he just disappeared. I don't know what's out there, but whatever it is, it must be seriously messed up."

"Well, if this thing did that to your dad, I don't think it would be a good idea to go looking for it. I mean-" At that moment, there was a loud rustle in the trees above them. "You hear that?" Li asked.

"Yeah…" Shinji replied in a low voice. At that moment, three shadows dropped down from the trees, encircling Shinji and Li. The shadows were people, wearing black clothes that covered their bodies from head-to-toe, with the exception of a slit for the eyes. All three of them had drawn a knife. The one standing in front of Shinji and Li called to them, "You two, hold it right there! Give us all your money!"

Shinji sighed. "You really don't want to do this friend," he said, already preparing himself.

Another of the the thieves replied to this- one of the ones standing behind Shinji and Li. "Look, this'll only be as hard as you make it for yourself. If you just hand your money over to us, then-" At that moment, Shinji turned, rooting himself to the ground, and thrust out his arm- in response, a fissure tore across the forest floor, and a spire of rock burst forth out of the ground. It struck one of the thieves standing behind him, knocking him off of his feet and into a tree. At this, the remaining two rushed forward. The other thief that had been behind Shinji charged him, but when he came close, Shinji twisted his foot against the ground- instantly, the ground beneath the thief softened, and he sank up to his neck in the earth.

Only one thief remained. Li stood his ground as the thief charged, waiting for the right moment- when the thief was only a few feet away, Li swing his arm in a wide arc, creating an enormous wall of flame before him. The thief, attempting to pull back from the flame, threw himself off-balance; when he saw this, Li himself charged, looping his leg behind the thief's and pulled back, throwing him even further off balance. Then, Li drew his arm back, and delivered a powerful punch to the thief's jaw. At once, the thief collapsed, clutching his face in his hands. Li took several deep breaths, trying to slow his heart rate, before looking back over his shoulder and asking,"Are you okay Shinji?"

Shinji nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine." Just then, he heard a voice yell at him, "Hey! I' not done with you yet!" He looked down at the source- it was the thief he had buried in the ground. Shinji was surprised- from the voice, this thief was a female, while the other two had been male. "Once I get out of here, you'll get what's coming to you!"

Shinji got down on one knee, and replied to the woman, "You should dig your way out of that hole first, then we can talk about that." The woman growled at him; ignoring this, Shinji got back to his feet and said, "We should get going, Li."

"O-okay." Shinji resumed walking down the path as Li hurried to join him. Behind them, the woman shouted at them, "Hey, where are you going! Get back here and let me go! Come back! I swear I'll find you! I'll find you and make you pay for this!" The woman's voice gradually faded. A few moments later, Li said out loud, "I feel bad for that lady. Will she be okay?"

"Yeah, she'll be fine, Li," Shinji replied. "I just made the ground under her soft so she'd sink- it's not like she's getting crushed or anything. When those other two guys wake up, they can pull her out no problem."

"Huh… I didn't know you could use an earthbending technique like that."

"I can do all sorts of things with the ground. And I already told you Li, it's _Shi Tui_, not 'earth bending.' I mean, you don't call what you do 'fire bending,' do you?"

"Actually, we do. It's just that the Rokuans have a very unique style of firebending that we call Ci Quan."

"_Gentle Fist_? That's quite a name for a fighting style where you shoot _fire_ out of your hands."

"Hey, the number one rule of Ci Quan is to avoid getting into a fight in the first place. Most techniques involving fire are meant to deter potential attackers. And hopefully, those three will think twice if they try to rob us again."

"Let's hope so."


	3. Complications

Chapter III: Complications

Darkness. All that could be seen was darkness. Was he floating? No- he could feel the earth beneath his feet, even if he couldn't see it. Then, something caught his attention. A small orange dot appeared above him. He wondered what it was, and pondered why it seemed to be getting… _bigger_. He then became aware of a sound- he couldn't identify it at first, but once he did, he was embarrassed he hadn't figured it out right away. The sound of flames. The orange dot continued to grow larger, but stranger still, it seemed to elongate. And all the while, the sound of flames continued to grow louder. The orange streak grew ever closer, gradually brightening everything. But it didn't matter- the sky remained black, and the ground was nothing more than a featureless brown expanse. Then, the streak touched the ground. There was a bright flash and a deafening explosion, temporarily blinding and deafening. But his sight and hearing soon returned. Before him, fire blazed, bathing the ground in a bright orange light. From where he stood, it seemed the very earth had been split open, like a cavernous, open mouth. Just then, an inky black tendril shot up from the depths of the crater and slammed against the ground. Another followed. Then, a sound bellowed out of the crater- it sounded like some great beast, shrieking and roaring simultaneously, as still more tendrils shot out of the crater…

* * *

Shinji opened his eyes. The sky above him was dark, but as he sat up, he could see that the sky on the horizon to his left had turned a bright pink. He exhaled a breath he didn't know he had been holding, and rested his face in his hands. _Another dream_, he thought to himself as he heard Li stir. "Urgh… Shinji?" Li asked groggily, sitting up as well. "Is everything alright?"

"Yeah," Shinji replied. "I'm fine. It was just a… _weird_ dream."

Li looked blearily over to the eastern horizon. "Well, in any case, the sun's rising. I guess we should pack up camp and get going."

Half an hour later, Shinji and Li were traveling down the road again. Two days had passed since that gang of thieves tried to rob them- Shinji and Li had seen neither hide nor hair of the three, hopefully meaning they would be dissuaded from pursuing any retribution. Not that there would be anywhere for the thieves to hide- the forest had receded the day before, to be replaced with a mostly flat field. As the two walked, Shinji could see Li digging inside his pack, before Li said to him, "Shinji, I have a problem- I'm out of food."

"Don't worry about it," Shinji replied as he reached back into his own pack. "I've got plenty of…" He stopped talking when he felt the inside of his food pouch was empty. "Hang on…" He dug deeper, trying to fish out any food that might have missed, but unfortunately, his bag was empty. "Uh oh. I'm out of food too."

"So what do we do now?"

"Well, it's obvious we have to head to a town and buy more." He looked around, but there was no indication that a town was anywhere nearby. "I can't see anything from here. And there's nothing around that would give us a good vantage point." It took several seconds for Shinji to realize what he had said. "Wait, what am I thinking? I can just do this." He slowly brought up his fist; as he did, the ground beneath him began to rise up in the form of a column. Once he'd reached what he thought was a respectable height, he looked around- sure enough, there was a mass of brown just up the road from where he and Li stood. With that, he pushed both of his hands down, and the column began to rapidly descend back into the earth. When they were on the same level again, Li asked, "Did you see anything?"

"There's a town not far from here. If we just follow the road, we should reach it." About ten minutes later, the two reached the town. Although, in truth, it wasn't much of a town- in all, there were only six buildings. Five seemed to be houses, and the last, much larger than the others had a sign nailed onto the front that read, "General Store."

A trading post. One of many that dotted the landscape of Huan.

Shinji and Li pushed open the door to the general store. The store itself was surprisingly empty- other than a small counter and a few empty shelves, the room was bare. A door across the front entrance creaked open, and a small-frail-looking old man came out. "Oh, hello there," he said in a feeble voice. "How can I help you boys?"

"We need some food for the next couple of days," Shinji replied.

"I'll see what I have in the back." The old man disappeared behind the door, and reemerged a minute later, hefting a rather large bag over his shoulder. He dropped it on the counter and said, "There's enough food in this bag to last you and your friend for a week. That'll be twenty gold pieces." As Shinji dug around in his bag for the pouch that held his money, the old man asked, "So, where're you boys headed?"

Shinji was preoccupied, so Li answered the question for him. "We're going to Fujisawa. We need to get to Sage Island."

"Fujisawa, huh? You two are lucky it's spring, then. In winter, the snowdrifts out here can get up to fifteen feet tall. Completely impassable until they all melt. But even now, it's not an easy road. Are you two walking there?"

Shinji finally retrieved the exact amount of money from his pouch and put it back in his pack. "Yeah."

"You two are tougher than most, let me tell you that. Whatever's waitin' for you in Fujisawa had better be worth it."

Shinji placed the gold pieces on the counter and slung the bag over his shoulder. "Yeah, let's hope it is."

* * *

A few days after leaving the first trading post, they experienced another problem. Li looked up to the sky, noting the dark clouds above, and said, "Shinji, I think we should stop for the day. It looks like rain's coming."

Shinji stopped and looked back at Li. "We can't stop now just because of a little rain, Li- we're already behind schedule as it is. The way we've been going, we won't reach Fujisawa for another two weeks." Shinji continued on his way, and Li followed him.

An hour passed, and the rain came down in torrents. Shinji and Li were completely drenched by the rain, but in spite of Li's promptings, Shinji refused to stop. Eventually, however, the clouds completely blocked out the sun, and with no light, the two could no longer travel. Begrudgingly, Shinji raised a few short walls of rock in the form of a tent, and after Li used a quick burst of fire to dry off the ground beneath it, the two huddled under the earth tent. "I hope this rain doesn't last too long," Shinji said.

The rain didn't let up until early the next morning. When the rain finally stopped, Shinji said in a low voice, "The rain stopped." Li noted that something sounded strange about Shinji's voice- it sounded as if there was some sort of… gurgle inside it. "Shinji… I don't think we should head out just yet."

"Why?" Shinji asked, before sneezing several times in a row.

"Well, there's that. I think you should rest for a while until you get better. If we go now, you'll only get worse."

"Come on Li, I'm sure it isn't-" Shinji hacked and coughed violently for several moments, before he leaned out of the earth tent and spat a disgusting green blob on the ground. Before Shinji could say anything else, Li said, "Yeah, we're not going anywhere until you get better."

A few minutes later, Shinji was in his sleeping bag, laying close to a small fire Li had made. Li was sitting by the front end of the earth tent, looking out at the road. Behind him, he heard Shinji say in a low voice, "I don't get it. We were both out there in the rain for the same amount of time. How come I'm the only one who got sick?"

Li looked back at Shinji. "Firebenders are able to control fire, but that's not all we're capable of. We can manipulate the temperature of a lot of things, even our own bodies."

"Okay, but what does that have to do with me being sick and you being just fine?"

"Well, a while ago, some people in Shimoji discovered that diseases are caused by little animals that get inside our bodies. Firebenders like me can raise the temperature in our bodies high enough that we kill these animals before they can make us sick."

"That sounds helpful. I guess it explains why I've never seen you get sick once. Any chance you can teach me how to do it?"  
"I don't think so. The differences between earth and fire are just too different for me to teach you anything."

"Well, what about that guy in that story you told me? The, um… the _Avatar_?"

"The Avatar _can_ master all four elements, but that's because the Avatar has a special spirit inside of him that lets him do that. But even then, it's not easy- it can take years before the Avatar is able to fully master all four elements."

"Oh. Well, being able to raise my body temperature would be nice. Maybe then I could be on the road instead of being stuck here."

"Just get some sleep, Shinji. Hopefully, you'll be feeling better in a couple of days."

Two days would pass before Li decided Shinji was well enough to resume traveling. Shinji fretted almost the entire time he was sick; after all, each day he had to spend resting would only make their journey longer. On the day they resumed their journey, Li asked, "Shinji, how long do you think it will take for us to reach Fujisawa now?"

Shinji thought for several moments before replying, "Well, it's been about a week since we left Misato, but with all the delays we've had, we're not even a quarter of the way to Fujisawa yet. My guess is that it'll take another two weeks for us to get there if we don't have any delays- if we do, we'll probably have to add another week onto that."

* * *

Around ten days passed. Little could be said about that time- whenever Shinji and Li weren't walking on the road to Fujisawa or camping for the night, they were buying food or other supplies for the trip. Eventually, they came across something… different, nestled near the base of a mountain. It was too large to be a trading post- there were about two dozen buildings of various sizes and shapes. Most curiously though was a sprawling network of tracks and cranes bunched right at the mountain's base, with a few leading into tunnels in the mountain's side..

A mining town. They weren't as common as the trading posts, but their numbers had steadily grown in the past thirty years, ever since the mysterious Rokuans came to Shimoji from across the eastern edge of the Great Sea.

"Wow, look at the size of this place," Li said. "It's almost as big as Misato."

"It's not that big," Shinji replied. "But I'll admit, it's a lot bigger than any of the trading posts we've seen. Maybe we'll be able to find some real food here." With that, the two began to head into the town, passing a sign welcoming them to the town of Kanon. The town was certainly more lively than any of the trading posts Shinji and Li had come across- for one, there were actual people wandering the streets of the town. In contrast, the trading posts, with the exception of when a trader happened to stop by, had all the liveliness of a ghost town. Eventually, they found a store, one much larger than any of those in the trading posts. As they entered, Li asked Shinji, "How much food do you think we should buy?"

"I'm not sure, Li. We probably won't need that much though- I think we're about halfway to Fujisawa, so we should run into plenty more trading posts on the way." The inside of the store was packed with people, and the shelves were completely filled. "We'll probably have to buy our food separately, Li. You have money?"

"Yeah, I've got plenty Shinji."

"Okay. We'll meet outside once we're done here." Shinji and Li separated, wandering up and down the aisles, gathering all the food they would need. Shinji finished first; he wouldn't have to wait long though, as Li came out the store entrance only a minute later. "Well, we got what we needed. Let's go," he said, and he and Shinji began to make their way out of the town. As they walked, Li said, "Hey Shinji, look at this thing I bought." He then reached into his pack, and pulled out a small, slightly malformed orange sphere. Curious, Shinji looked at it and asked, "What is it?"

"The guy at the front counter said it was an 'orange.'" He handed Shinji the orange, so he could inspect it.

Shinji ran his hands over it, wondering about the rough texture. "Can you eat it?"

"Yeah. The guy at the counter also said that oranges prevent scurvy too."

"Really? We should remember to buy plenty of oranges while we're at Sage Island."

Just then, the two heard a voice call out, "Hey you two, come back here!" Shinji and Li looked back to see a man in ragged gray clothes approaching them. When the man came closer, he spat on the ground in front of them and said, "You there, in the red, I don't like the way you were looking at me."

"I wasn't even looking at you," Li replied.

"Don't try and play dumb with me boy! You and I are gonna settle this right now."

Shinji tugged lightly on Li's shoulder. "Come on Li. Let's just go." They began to walk away; as they did, they heard the man call out, "Hey! I said we have a score to settle!" Li stopped, but Shinji again pulled on Li's shoulder to keep him moving. "Yeah sure! Go ahead and run! Your father raised a coward! Maybe I'll find your house and show your mother what a real man is like!"

At this, Li stopped. Shinji tried to tug on his shoulder, but Li simply shrugged him off. "Maybe I'd show your girlfriend a good time too! But knowing you, you probably don't have a girlfriend! You play for the other team, huh!" Li turned to face the man. "Oh, so you don't like that. Well then, why don't you come over here and do something about it!" Li trembled in anger, and little flickers began to ignite in the air around him. Suddenly, Li's fist shot out, sending an enormous burst of fire. Undaunted, the man raised a wall from the earth, blocking the jet of fire. Li slowly began to stride toward the rock wall, still shooting a stream of fire from his fist. The flame eventually stopped.- the wall was blackened, but otherwise still standing. Li held out his arm and tapped the heel of his hand against the wall; suddenly, an explosion emerged from Li's hand, blasting apart the wall. The man was thrown to the ground by the force of the explosion, but before he could rise again, Li was in front of him, swathed in fire, his arm outstretched, with a flame ignited at his fingertips. "Let me make something clear to you," Li said, his voice completely flat. "If you ever insult my mother again, _I will **kill** you_." Li began to walk away.

But the man wasn't done yet. As soon as Li had turned his back, the man was on his feet, pulling a large section of stone from the earth. He launched the stone at Li; in one fluid motion, Li ducked under the stone, spun to face the man, and punched out his fist, launching a fireball in response. The fireball hit it's mark, hitting the man right in the left side of his face. The man fell to his knees, clutching his face, and shouted at Li,"You little _bastard_!" Li calmly replied, "I missed on purpose that time. If you attack me again, I won't miss." He turned and began to walk away, mumbling to Shinji, "Let's get out of here." After a moment's hesitation, Shinji followed him.


	4. The City

Chapter IV: The City

Several days passed. Li spoke very little to Shinji in that time period; Shinji, concluding Li was highly disturbed by his actions in the mining town, kept his distance. One day, after the two had set up camp for the night, and after Shinji finished his dinner, he approached Li, who had been sitting at the edge of the camp. "Li…?" Shinji began hesitantly.

Without looking back, Li asked, "Shinji… do you think I'm a bad person?"

"Of course I don't Li." Shinji sat down next to Li. "You're one of the kindest people I've ever known."

"But, back at that town, when that guy insulted my mom… I just… lost it. I didn't feel like myself anymore. And I… I burned him."

"Li, look, sometimes… things like this happen. Nobody's perfect, you know- I know I'm not. And, you feel bad about what you did. If you didn't feel bad, or if you actually felt… _good_ about doing that, that would make you a bad person."

"But… I attacked that guy. Ci Quan is avoiding fights, not starting them."

"Hey, that guy insulted your mom, remember? Defending you mom's honor seems like a good reason to fight to me. Anyway, there was something I wanted to tell you."

"What is it, Shinji?"

"Well, you see how there's a gap in those mountains over there?" Shinji pointed to the west, where a large gap between a range of mountains could be seen. "Take a look at the map." He pulled a map from his pocket- his normal one. "Look at how there's no mountains around Fujisawa." Li took a close look at the map- almost the entirety of Huan was rimmed by mountains… except for the very western tip, right where Fujisawa would be. Li looked down at the map for a few moments, then he looked up to where Shinji had been pointing. "It's right over there… we're almost there! We're almost at Fujisawa!"

"Hey, don't get too excited just yet. We're still a ways off from Fujisawa. It'll take us at least another four days to get there."

Shinji was wrong on that account- with Li's frantic pace, it only took two days for he and Shinji to reach the outskirts of Fujisawa. At sunset on the second day, the two came to a ridge overlooking the entire city. "Look at this place," Li said, looking out over Fujisawa. "It's a lot bigger than Misato. It's probably even bigger than Shanxi."

Shinji sat down at the edge of the ridge next to Li. "It's impressive, I'll give you that. But that's not why we're here. _That's_ why we came here." He pointed out, past the city, to a small cluster of lights seemingly floating on the ocean. "That's Sage Island out there. We're one step away from it now… We're one step away from Saya."

Li looked over at Shinji. "You really missed her, didn't you?"

"This will be the first time I've seen Saya in six months. So yeah, I've missed her." He paused for a moment. "I'm a little nervous, though. Six months is a long time; I wonder how much she's changed. You think she still remembers us?"

"Well, she couldn't have changed _that_ much. And I'm sure she'll be happy to see both of us again." Li began to walk away from the ridge. "We should probably set up camp. There's not much point in us going down there until morning."

* * *

The next morning came. Shinji had awoken first, and sat by the ridge overlooking the city. Even in this early hour, there was activity, as little flags began to rise all over the city. The first were green flags depicting a white lotus flower from the side- the flag of Huan. There were a few red flags of Shimoji, with orange and yellow lines spiraling around each other, but unlike in Misato, these were few and far between. Instead, another kind of flag dominated the skyline- one with a blue background, and a white, limbless sea serpent stretched across it. Shinji recognized the blue flag- the Water Sages that came to Misato had been carrying that same flag.

As he looked over the city, Shinji heard something stir behind him, followed by Li's voice asking, "Is everything okay?" Shinji nodded, but didn't look back at Li. "Yeah. I'm fine. I just couldn't sleep."

"More weird dreams?"

"No, it wasn't anything like that. I'm just nervous."

Li began to roll up his sleeping bag. "About what?"

"Well… what if we can't convince Saya to come with us?"

"Are you kidding me? You and Saya always used to talk about going on adventures. This would be like a dream-come-true for her."

Shinji laughed nervously. "Yeah… I-I guess I'm just being silly. I'm sure she'll want to go with us after we tell her where we're going."

"Exactly. Now pack up your stuff- from the looks of it, it'll take all day to get across the city."

Twenty minutes later, Shinji and Li climbed down the winding path that led to the front gates of the city. They looked around in amazement- it wasn't even an hour since dawn, and the streets were already packed with people. "Wow. I don't think I've ever seen so many people all in the same place," Li said.

"Me neither," Shinji replied. "Li, it's really important that you and I try to stay together from here on out. Don't wander off."

"Okay." And with that, the two entered the crowds of Fujisawa. If the crowd looked bad before, having to force their way through it was even worse. No matter where they turned, every street was packed with people, and forcing their way through the crowds slowed the two to a snail's pace. Their progress certainly wasn't helped by the innumerable stalls that lined every street, where vendors tried to sell all sorts of goods.

"Good grief. The way we're going, it'll take us a week to reach the docks," Shinji said. "Don't you think so Li?" Li didn't answer. "Don't you think so Li?" Shinji asked again, over the noise of the crowd, but Li still didn't answer. Shinji looked over his shoulder. "Li?" Li was no longer following behind Shinji. With difficulty, he began to go back the way he came, pushing his way through the crowd, keeping his eyes open for his friend. Eventually, he found Li standing in a fairly sizable crowd. He tapped his shoulder and asked, "Li, what are you doing?"

"Shinji, you should see this guy. He's playing a saw like a musical instrument. Like, a carpenter's saw."

"Li, we don't have time for this. We have to get to Saya."

"Can't we just watch this guy for a few minutes?"

"Ugh… fine." Shinji and Li stood in the crowd, watching the man play his saw. It was… strange- as the man ran a strange stick over the back of the saw, notes began to sound over the crowd, almost perfectly mimicking a woman's voice. But it wasn't to last- seemingly as soon as the man begun his song, it was finished. Amid the short applause, Shinji leaned over and asked, "Okay, we saw this thing; can we go?" Li replied, "Yeah, let's go." They broke away from the crowd, and reentered the throngs of people making their way through the streets.

However, it wouldn't have made much difference if Shinji and Li had followed the crowd or not- with the slow pace, any progress they may have made was negligible at best. Gradually, the number of people on the streets began to dwindle… but only because the sky began to darken as the sun sank toward the horizon. "Great, the sun's setting," Shinji said.

"What do we do now?" Li asked.

"I'm not sure, but it's not like we can just pitch a tent in the middle of the street and wait for morning."

"Well, even if we could, I'm not sure we'd want to." It took a few moments before Shinji figured out what Li meant. Earlier, he had been so focused on trying to reach the far side of the city that he neglected to his surroundings- now that he stopped to look around, he saw that he and Li wound up in a rather unfriendly-looking neighborhood. "Yeah, this place doesn't look too good," Shinji replied. "We should go." They began to walk down one of the numerous roads, but then, a person called out from behind, "Wait! Don't go that way!" They turned, to see a hooded person in dark robes approaching them. "There's no need to be frightened. I'm a missionary for the Temple of the Water Dragon." The person pushed his hood back, revealing he was a young man with short black hair. "This part of the city wouldn't be safe for two young men to wander around in at night. I can take you to the local temple- ordinarily, we don't allow people to stay the night, but I'm sure the minister would understand this situation. Follow me." He turned and began to walk away from Shinji and Li. With few other options, the two followed.

The missionary eventually led Shinji and Li to a large building- its roof had a steep slope to keep off snow, like most building in Huan, and it was rather large, but other than that, it wasn't especially outstanding. However, what drew their attention was the large courtyard in front of the building- so far, no other building they had seen possessed any sort of front, let alone a courtyard of this size. In the very center stood a statue of some sort of sea serpent, its head crowned with horns and a ridge of spines running down the entire length of its body. Even in the low light, the statue seemed to shimmer like glass. The missionary proceeded past the statue and up the stairs to the main door. As they passed through the door, Shinji and Li saw it was flanked by two more sea serpent statues.

"I know the inside of the temple doesn't seem like much," the missionary began, "but you must see it during the day. It's quite magnificent." Inside, two rows of benches ran down the entire length of the temple, ending with a small podium in front of yet another statue of a sea serpent. The enormous glass statue shimmered in the light of numerous candles lining the walls of the temple. In addition, the walls of the temple were covered with various paintings of still more sea serpents- each painting depicted the serpent in a different setting, perhaps showing some sort of story.

Shinji and Li spotted somebody moving along one of the temple walls, stopping to blow out the candles. "Brother Shu," the missionary said, "I've returned."

"I see." Brother Shu turned to the three, taking note of Shinji and Li before saying, "I see you have brought company, Brother An."

"I found these two wandering in the outer district. You know that it's no place for children, especially at night. Of course, if it would be alright with you, Brother Shu, perhaps they could spend the night here."

"Well, I suppose no harm could come of it. You boys can stay here for the night."

At once, Li bowed to the missionary, and then to the other Water Sage, and said, "Thank you for your hospitality." After a moment, Shinji did so as well.

About an hour had passed. Li had fallen asleep, but Shinji laid in his sleeping bag, staring up at the ceiling of the temple. Eventually, he climbed out of his sleeping bag, and went to a door at the rear of the temple, behind the statue. He knocked- after a moment, the door creaked open, and one of the Water Sages- Shinji believed his name was Shu- peered out. "It's late," he said. "It isn't good for your health to be awake at this hour."

"I'm sorry to bother you, but I was hoping there was something you could help me with."

"Certainly. What can I help you with?"

"My friend Li and I came here to find someone."

"Thousands of people live in this city. I don't think I can help you find whoever you're looking for."

"Actually, you can. My friend joined the Water Sages about six months ago. I was hoping you could help me get to Sage Island so Li and I could find her."

"Hmm…"

"So, can you help us?"

"Of course. Tomorrow morning, I will show you a way to reach Sage Island."

Shinji bowed. "Thank you."

* * *

The morning came. Shinji awoke, to see Li sitting in one of the benches, reading a scroll. As he climbed out of his sleeping bag, Shinji asked, "What's that Li?"

"I'm not sure," Li replied. "I found it under the bench."

Shinji glanced at the side of the scroll. "'The Book of the Water Dragon,'" he read. "I remember those Water Sages that came to Misato were handing out those scrolls."

"Really?" At this, the door at the back of the temple creaked open, and the Water Sage called Shu stepped out. "Ah, I see that you're awake," he said, stepping into the main area of the temple. "Did you sleep well?"

"Yeah," Shinji replied.

Shu noticed Li's scroll and said, "I see that you're interested in the word of the Church."

"What? No, I was just- I found it under the bench…" Li began to roll up the scroll.

"You can keep the scroll, it's quite alright. Perhaps reading it will inspire you to change your opinion." He began to walk toward the glass sea serpent statue. "Please, come over here. I will show you the way to Sage Island." He disappeared behind the statue. After rolling up his sleeping bag, Shinji made his way behind the statue, Li following him. Behind the statue, Shu stood in front of a strange, round metal plate set into the floor. "This is how you will reach the Grand Temple." He bent down, and pulled the plate from the floor- underneath was a tunnel going straight into the ground, with a series of rungs stuck to the inside. "The Temple of the Water Dragon had a network of tunnels built under Fujisawa, so that the Water Sages could move easily between the docks and the various churches around the city. All you have to do is follow the tunnel at the bottom of this ladder to an intersection, take a left turn, and follow it all the way to the end. The ladder there should come up in an alley near the docks."

Shu stood up and looked at the two. "Now, before you two leave, you must bear in mind that although I can lead you to Sage Island, I cannot guarantee that your friend will be there when you arrive."

"Okay," Shinji replied, before bowing. "Thank you for doing this."

Shu bowed in return. "It's no trouble." He stood upright. "You should go. An and I need to open the temple soon.

Shu stepped aside allowing Li to climb down the ladder. After a few moments, Shinji climbed into the hole and down the ladder as well. As he climbed down, he heard the Water Sage say, "Good luck with finding your friend." Then, there was a sliding sound, and the tunnel plunged into darkness. With no light, Shinji began to very slowly climb down the ladder, until another light appeared at the bottom of the ladder. After a moment, Shinji joined his friend at the bottom of the ladder. Before the two, the tunnel stretched off into the darkness; it was the only way to go. So, wordlessly, the two began to walk down the tunnel. After a while, Shinji noticed Li was reading the scroll he had earlier. "You're still reading that thing?" he asked.

"Well, yeah," Li replied. "Maybe reading it will help me better understand the Water Sages."

"Li, we're just going to find Saya, not negotiate a treaty."

"Among my people, showing understanding for another person's culture is a sign of respect, Shinji."

"Okay then. Read anything interesting?"

"Well, the part I'm at right now is talking about how the Water Dragon created the world."

"Sounds interesting. Would it be alright if I borrowed that when I couldn't sleep?"

"Sure. Are we at the intersection yet?"

"I'm not sure. Can I get some more light?" Li held up his hand, igniting a large flame in his palm; in the light the tunnel split into three branches a few feet ahead. "We're almost there. We take a left turn, right?"

"That's what the Water Sage said, Shinji." The two rounded the corner, and continued down the tunnel.

Some time passed- however, without the sun, it was impossible to determine exactly how much. "Li, light?" Automatically, Li held up his hand, igniting a flame. The light revealed a ladder about ten feet from where they were standing. "Hey, we're here!" Shinji said excitedly.

Li looked up from his scroll. "Really? …Oh hey, we are!" He began to roll up the scroll. After pocketing it, he followed Shinji up the ladder. A few moments later, Shinji pushed aside the cover over the ladder and climbed back to ground level, with Li emerging seconds later. They were in a small alley, but beyond, they could see a sparkling blue expanse- the ocean. They stepped out of the alley- here, just as before, people hurried to and fro, but now, there weren't nearly as many people. In addition, alongside innumerable wooden piers were anchored countless ships from all corners of the Great Sea.

The docks. Both Shinji and Li were intimately familiar with the sight.

Shinji sniffed the air, enjoying the salty scent, even enjoying the way it stung the inside of his nose. "You know Li, I'm not ashamed to admit that I've missed that smell." Li sniffed the air as well, and replied, "Me too, Shinji." Shinji looked around, taking in the sight that felt so familiar to him, before he pointed slightly to his right and said, "Look over there." Between two ships, the two could see a large brown mass rising above the water some distance away. Even at its distance, the two could see a massive cluster of sand-colored buildings with navy blue roofs resting on the mass. "There it is, Li," Shinji said. "Sage Island. We're almost there."

"Well, there's no use standing around, then," Li replied. "Let's find a boat." And with that, the two disappeared into the crowd.

Shinji and Li wouldn't be searching for long. After only a few minutes, the two came across a ferry that could take them to the island; after paying a few gold pieces each, the two climbed aboard, and the boat was on its way. They weren't the only ones, though- they had joined a few dozen others on-board the ferry, presumably headed to Sage Island as well. Li, leaning against the railing at the edge of the boat, glanced back over his shoulder and said, "I wonder why all these people are going to Sage Island."

Shinji, leaning with his back to the railing, replied, "Well, when those Water Sages came to Misato, they said the Grand Temple on Sage Island was where the first temple honoring the Sacred Water Dragon was built. All these people are probably members of the Church- my guess is that all of Sage Island would be sacred to them."

"I'm surprised Shinji- you know more about the Water Sages than I thought."

"Well, let it never be said that I don't pay attention when people tell me stuff." Shinji turned, and looked out over the ocean. "What surprises me is that _you_ didn't see it, Li. I remember you told me you had something like this in Shimoji- something about three boats."

"We do. My people built a shrine to honor the three ships that brought us to Shimoji: the _Spirit of Fire_, the _Chung-Ling_, and the _Ainu_. Everyone on Shimoji goes to see all the ships, and leave offerings on the ships their families came from. When I used to live in Shimoji, my parents and I would go see them all the time- my dad came from the _Chung-Ling_, and my mom came from the _Spirit of Fire_, so we'd leave our offerings on those ships."

"So, when you went to Shimoji six months ago-" Just then, they heard several people cry out. They looked back to the crowd, which had suddenly pulled back to the edges of the ship- through the crowd, they could see three individuals standing in the center of the circle of people, weapons drawn. The three were comprised of two men and a woman, and wore blue robes much like the other passengers, presumably to blend in better with the crowd.

"Alright, nobody move!" The woman shouted, waving her sword threateningly. The woman had short black hair, and towered over her two cronies- in spite of her fragile-looking features, here eyes seemed to burn with immeasurable hate. "We're taking everything you've got! And no funny business, either!"

Then, one of the men pulled a bag out from inside his robe, and said calmly, "Listen, we're not making this difficult. Just do as we say, and nobody will be hurt." This man long black hair pulled back in a ponytail, and was considerably smaller than his leader. The other man, taller and more heavyset than his companion, remained silent.

"Those two sound familiar," Li mumbled. It took only a moment for Shinji to realize what Li had said- now that he thought about it, the three in the middle sounded just like the three thieves that tried to rob them a few weeks prior. "We need to do something," Li continued.

"I'm gonna need a few moments to bring up some rock from under the ocean. Do you think you can hold them off until then?"

"Certainly. Just don't take too long." Li began to force his way through the crowd, as Shinji remained behind, focusing all his energy into summoning the stone at the seafloor. Soon, Li made his way to the front of the circle- the three noticed him, and the short man said, "Oh look, we have a volunteer. Just empty your pockets kid, and- hey wait a minute…" His brow furrowed, as he were concentrating intensely. "I remember you! You're one of those kids that beat us up a couple weeks ago!" He sheathed the knife he'd been holding, and instead drew a sword from his belt. "I'd rather face the one who shot that rock spire at me, but you'll work just fine." The short man charged- when he was in range, he raised the sword over his head, and swung at Li.

Without any hesitation, Li took a step forward, his arm darting up over his head- his forearm met the man's wrists, stopping him mid-swing. Less than a second later, Li buried his knee in the short man's chest. The sword slipped out of the man's hands, and he collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath. "Yohsi!" the heavy man called, and he too charged at Li. He never got close to Li- only moments later, a large stone flew through the air and struck him directly in the side of the head. The heavy man was knocked off of his feet and thrown against the deck of the ship, where he laid motionless. Li then saw Shinji making his way toward him, his arms coated with stone. When he was closer, he asked, "Are you alright, Li?" Li replied, "Yeah, I'm fine." They then turned their attention to the woman. "Perfect, you're both here," she said. "I've looking forward to this for a long time. I'm finally going to make you pay for what you did to us."

The woman didn't even have a chance to charge the two- at that moment, an almost invisible blur streaked forward and snapped across the woman's hand with a loud crack. She dropped her sword at once, clutching her injured hand, when suddenly, a stream of water surrounded her hands before freezing solid. Then, seemingly as one last insult, a stream of water wrapped around the woman's ankle before pulling back, knocking the woman off her feet and onto her face. The woman made no attempt to rise.

"Are you boys alright?" Shinji and Li heard a voice ask from behind. They looked back; behind them stood an elderly, rather frail-looking bald man in the same dark blue robes as the other passengers. "You two aren't hurt, are you?"

"No, we're fine," Li replied.

"I regret that I could not have been here earlier to resolve this situation- it's shameful that the lives of the congregation fell to two children."

"Wait, you're a part of the Church?" Shinji asked.

"Yes, I am a ranking member of the Temple of the Water Dragon. You may call me Brother Shuji. Now, is there any way I could repay my tardiness to you?"

"Well, if this ship has a brig, would you mind helping us bring these three down there? We'll call it even if you do."

"This ship does indeed have a brig." Brother Shuji then passed between Shinji and Li, stopping to bend down and pick up the small man before placing him over his shoulder. "And I wouldn't mind helping you in the least."


	5. Bittersweet Reunion

Chapter V: Bittersweet Reunion

Only a few minutes after Shinji, Li, and Brother Shuji carried the three would-be thieves down to the brig, the boat finally landed at Sage Island. In that short time-span, the rest of the passengers chattered excitedly to themselves; however, though they mentioned Li and Shinji from time to time, their attention seemed to be focused mainly on Brother Shuji. The minutes ticked by and eventually, the ship docked at the small pier at the edge of the island. Shinji and Li disembarked from the ship, and stood on the pier. Li noticed Shinji visibly shaking, and he asked, "Is everything alright?"

Shinji nodded. "Yeah, everything's fine. Let's just get going." The two began to make their way through the crowd gawking at the outside of the Grand Temple, to a large gate set into the outer wall. Next to the gate was a small guard box, with a woman inside. With this as their only option, the two approached the guard box and said to the woman inside, "Excuse me, but my friend and I have a friend of ours in the temple and we need to see her. Can you let us inside?"

"Nobody is permitted into the Grand Temple without an invitation from a Water Sage," the woman inside the guard box replied flatly.

"What?" Shinji asked, incredulous.

"You heard me."

"Yeah, I heard. But my friend and I didn't come all this way just so you could tell us 'no.'"

"_No_. Now please move along, or I will have to remove you from the island."

"Is there a problem here, Sister?" A voice asked from behind. Shinji and Li looked back, to see Brother Shuji standing behind them.

The woman immediately rose to her feet. "D-Deacon Shuji! You've returned!"

"I have. But you still haven't answered my question."

"Well, Your Grace, these two boys tried to enter the Grand Temple, but I told them they can't enter without an invitation from a Water Sage, and now they refuse to leave."

"Well, correct me if I'm mistaken Sister, but a Maester is permitted to invite outsiders to the Grand Temple, so long as he remains their escort. I'm certain that you will not find any objections to this."

"O-Of-Of course not, Y-Your Grace." The woman then reached over, and pulled some sort of lever on the floor of the guard box. The lever seemed to have triggered some mechanism, as the gate set into the wall slowly began to open with a great grinding sound. "Come with me, boys," Deacon Shuji said, and began to walk toward the opening gate. As they walked under the arch leading to the interior of the temple, Shinji asked, "Why did you help us back there?"

"The older Water Sages like me have a code of honor we adhere to- we will never willingly turn our backs on those who are in need of our help." Shuji paused for a moment. "I can tell that you two are not a part of the congregation- something else has brought you to Sage Island. It isn't my place to ask why you have come here, but perhaps you would be willing to indulge my curiosity."

Li responded before Shinji. "Shinji and I came here to find a friend of ours. She joined the Temple of the Water Dragon a couple months ago."

"I see." There was a long pause before Li said, "That guard back there called you 'Deacon.' Just out of curiosity, what does that mean?"

"A Deacon," began Shuji, "is one of the Maesters of the Temple, who serve as the heads of the various branches within the Church. As a Deacon, I act as an emissary between the Grand Temple and the various smaller temples scattered over the Great Sea. When I am not acting as an emissary, my duty is to oversee the new initiates who join the Temple, and assign them to a branch that could best utilize their abilities."

"Wait… you oversee the initiates?" Shinji asked. "Maybe you can help us! The person we're looking for is named Saya. She's from Huan- Misato specifically."

"I'm afraid I cannot help you. I do not know all the initiates on a personal level. But I do know of someone who _can_ help you. Here we are."

The three exited the tunnel, emerging in the interior of the Grand Temple. Before them stretched a beautiful, massive garden that stretched as far as the eye could see, full of trees and grass and ponds; there were even a few glass statues of a sea serpent, the Sacred Water Dragon the Sages revered so much. Shinji and Li were initially stunned; the greens of the garden seemed almost eye-searing, when compared to the sandy brown exterior of the temple. There was no time to admire the garden, however, as Deacon Shuji began to walk down the small walkway at its edge. The two caught up to the Maester; when they did, Li asked, "Where are we going?"

"We are going to the Temple Library. Records of all activities within the Church are kept there, including information about new initiates. The information there will tell us what branch of the Temple your friend has been placed in." After a few minutes, the three came to a pair of doors set in the wall; there was nothing to indicate that the structure was the library they were looking for, but without hesitating, the Deacon pushed the door open and stepped inside, with Shinji and Li following.

Immediately beyond the door, the three came to a "hallway" framed by two extraordinarily tall bookshelves, the largest Shinji and Li had ever seen. Every single row of both bookshelves were packed with books; it was certain that to read all the books on just one side of one bookshelf, one would require a time period of several lifespans. Shuji had apparently become accustomed to the sight, as he wordlessly continued onward, leaving Shinji and Li to hurriedly catch up with him. As the three made their way through the massive Library, Shinji and Li marveled; they passed through rows of bookshelves, and in the space between the rows, they glanced over to see still more rows of bookshelves, stretching into the darkness in both directions.

Eventually, however, Shinji and Li saw a light shining ahead, brighter than the numerous scattered irregularly over the Library. They found that it was a desk illuminated with a half-dozen candles, situated in the gap between the row of bookshelves they emerged from and the next one. At the desk, facing toward them, sat a shockingly pale boy clad in the robes of the Water Sages; he couldn't possibly have been any older than Shinji or Li. He seemed to be in the process of painstakingly transcribing a book; the boy would examine one book, before carefully taking a brush and making a few strokes in another book. Without looking up, the boy said in a flat monotone, "Brother Shuji. You've returned."

"I have. I see that you're still transcribing that book, Brother Kyon. Most scribes would have been done with it by now."

"True, but the number of mistakes they would have made would fill a book twice this size. You can't rush perfection. I have a record to uphold, and that is exactly what I intend to do."

"Four books without a single error is not the most outstanding record, Brother Kyon."

"I assure you, Brother Shuji, that you will see that number grow with time. After all, even the highest mountain was once a molehill."

At this, Shinji asked quietly, "Who is this guy?"

"This is Brother Kyon," Shuji replied. "the Keeper of the Scrolls. Like me, he is a Maester of the Temple."

"Not to mention the head scribe of the Temple, and the master of the Library," Brother Kyon interjected. "I see that you have guests with you, Brother Shuji."

"Indeed. These two came to find a friend of theirs who recently joined us. Perhaps you cold tell us where to find information about new recruits."

Without looking up, Kyon pointed to his left. "Go six bookcases down, then make a left. All the information about new initiates will be on the shelves on the right hand side. The more recent information will be closest to you." Without another word, Brother Kyon continued his work.

"Well, you two know where the information is," Brother Shuji said. "I'll leave it to you to find it. I expect you won't be gone long- there haven't been many initiates to join the Temple over the last few months." Shuji turned back to his fellow Maester and struck up a conversation. So, Shinji and Li began to walk in the direction Kyon had pointed. They went six bookshelves down, and made a left turn. From the outside, there was little to indicate that this bookshelf was any different from the ones around it, but inside, the two noticed something unique. Unlike the other bookshelves they had seen, the bookcase on the right-hand side wasn't packed with books- in fact, several of the shelves were empty. Those that weren't empty were filled with numerous sheaves of paper, all tied together with string. Presumably, those sheaves of paper held information about every member of the Temple.

"Well, we're here," Li said. "I guess we start looking."

"Where should we start? Look at all these papers."

"The guy said the most recent information would be closest to us, so I guess we just we start there and work our way backwards." Li then took a bundle of papers off the shelf and began looking through them- Shinji did likewise. He scanned the papers, looking for anything that might help. Seemingly every minute event within the Church had been recorded- initiates had been moved to different branches within the Temple, missionaries were sent out to found new Temple chapters, a new Maester had been selected, and Shinji even came across what seemed to be speeches or sermons given by someone called "Praetor." But none of the papers he looked through had anything to do with Saya. Dejectedly, he put the stack of papers back on the shelf, and pulled off the one next to it. He scanned the page, seeing nothing of interest, and flipped to the next one.

His heart stopped when he saw the second page.

The first thing Shinji saw the moment he laid his eyes on the paper, at the top of the page, were two kana, two kana that spelled, "_Saya_." Shinji read further down the paper, his hands shaking so severely the words on the page were barely legible:

_Name: Saya_

_ Age: 15_

_ Recruited From: Misato, Huan_

_ Date of Recruitment: 12 Juichigatsu, 841 AF_

_ As of 4 Ichigatsu, 842, Apostle Saya has now been removed from the care of Deacon Shuji. Under his discretion, she will be moved to the Crusaders, under the supervision of Paladin Taki._

And that was it. Shinji scanned the paper several more times, even turning it over to see if anything was written on the back. But there was nothing else- seemingly all the information about his friend had been condensed to only a few lines on a sheet of paper. "Uh… Li?" Shinji said out loud.

Li looked over. "Did you find something, Shinji?" He approached, and peered over Shinji's shoulder. "You found it! …It says she's with the 'Crusaders.' Maybe one of those Maesters knows who they are."

"Yeah, maybe your right." Shinji slipped the stack of papers back on the shelf, and the two made their way back to the desk. As they approached, Shuji turned toward them and said, "You've returned. Were you able to find the information you were looking for?"

"Yeah," Shinji replied. "We found it. My friend is with the Crusaders."

"The Crusaders?" Shuji rubbed his chin for a moment, before a look of realization spread across his face. "I remember her now! Every day, she asked me if she could become a knight of the Crusaders. I always thought it was a strange request; the Church hasn't had a need for the Crusaders for nearly a hundred years. But she continued to ask, so, before I left for my emissary work three months ago, I turned her over to Paladin Taki. The Crusaders reside in the barracks on the far side of the Temple- I can take you there." Shuji began to walk back to the Library entrance- after a moment, Shinji and Li followed, hearing Kyon say flatly behind them, "It was good seeing you again, Shuji."

The three exited the library a few moments later. As the three walked alongside the gardens of the Grand Temple, Li asked, "Mister Deacon, what's so strange about Saya being with these Crusaders?"

"Well you see, the Crusaders serve as a sort of army for the Church," Shuji replied. "Long ago, there weren't many people who were as tolerant of our beliefs as they are now. So, to protect our congregation, the original Praetor of the Temple formed the Crusaders. But ever since we rebuilt the Grand Temple here at Sage Island around three hundred years ago, we've had less need for the Crusaders. These days, their main duty is to protect temples in unstable areas such as the Zhong Islands from pirates and the like."

Eventually, they reached another building much like the others they had passed. However, they saw something different in the arch next to the building; beyond, rather than a garden, there seemed to be a large pond of some sort from what Shinji and Li could see. Shuji approached a door near where they had stopped. "I will see if Paladin Taki would be willing to help you. Wait here for just a moment." Shuji then disappeared into the doorway. Almost as soon as he was out of sight, Shinji made his way toward the arch. "Shinji, what are you doing?" Li asked in a hushed voice.

"The last time I saw Saya was six months ago. I spent four weeks crossing an entire continent to find her. If she's right on the other side of this wall, then I'm… I refuse to wait one more minute. I want to see my friend _now_." He headed through the arch; hesitantly, Li followed.

Beyond, the two found an open courtyard dominated by a large pond. Passing through the arch, the two could now see that a large, square wooden platform had been erected above the pond, presumably serving as some sort of training area, with four bridges spanning between the platform and the edge of the pond. A single person in blue robes and with very short black hair stood at the far end of the platform, with their back turned to them, doing something neither of them could see. Despite the fact he couldn't see the person's face, Shinji instinctively knew who it was, even though their hair was much shorter than he remembered. Just then, the person turned slightly, pulling a stream of water from the pond with a wave of their hand- that small turn exposed part of the person's face, revealing familiar, delicate-looking facial features that put any doubt in Shinji's mind to rest.

Saya.

Shinji's heart began to pound painfully in his chest. "Well… this is it…" Shinji said nervously to Li, before he crossed one of the bridges leading to the platform, with Li in tow. He walked slowly, trying to keep his footsteps as silent as possible; although he was uncertain why, Li imitated him. Shinji and Li finally stopped only a few feet away from Saya; Shinji looked over at Li silently, who motioned to the girl. Shinji turned back toward his friend, took a deep, shuddering breath, and said simply, "Saya."

Saya jumped slightly, but remained silent. When she didn't reply, Shinji continued, "Saya, it's me. Shinji." She still didn't respond, so Shinji took a few steps toward her. "Li and I came all this way so we could talk to you."

Then without warning, Saya spun and slapped Shinji hard across the face; Shinji staggered back, bringing his hand up to his face. "You have a lot of nerve coming here like this after what you did," she said coldly, her brow furrowed, eyes sparking in anger. She turned to Li and said in a less threatening voice, but without removing the look of fury from her face, "It's good to see you again, Li." She looked back at Shinji. "What are you doing here anyway?" She asked, her voice returning to its original coldness.

Even after regaining his balance, Shinji could only stand staring at Saya in shock, his hand still touching his cheek. So, Li answered for him, "Well, Shinji and I found this map in his attic, and we want to go and see what's out there. We thought maybe you'd want to go with us."

"Not interested." She began to walk away. "I'm not going two ask how you two got in here, but you should leave, now."

Finally, Shinji snapped out of his stupor and began to follow her. "But Saya, you always said you wanted to go on an adventure!" He reached toward her. "This could be your chance to-"

Saya pulled a stream of water from the pond beneath her and pointed toward Shinji, the ice freezing in the form of a sharp spike around her hand. "_**Don't touch me**__. Don't you ever touch me again._"

Shinji backed off immediately. "Whoa, calm down. I didn't even touch you."

Li looked over at Saya, then back to Shinji, a very confused expression on his face. "Um… am I missing something?" he asked.

The ice spike around Saya's hand melted away, and she turned her back on the two. "Get out of here. I don't care what either of you have to say." And without another word, she walked away.

A few minutes later, Shinji was lowing Li and himself to the base of the wall surrounding the Grand Temple. Once they had reached the base, Li looked over at Shinji and began hesitantly, "Um… Shinji? Did… did… something happen between you and Saya? …While I was away?"

Shinji took a seat on the ground. "Yeah," he replied sullenly. "You might want to take a seat. This might take a while."

* * *

_After several tries, Shinji finally lit thee tinder in his stove with his spark rocks. He wouldn't have had any trouble if Li had been there, but Li had left a few days before; he said he and his parents were going to Shimoji for about a week, but he neglected to say why. It didn't matter though- the fire in the stove gradually created a pleasant warmth that spread through the entire house. Shinji had no plans on going down to the store- in the dead of winter, the shelves would be empty, so there wasn't much point._

_ A knock came from the back door. Shinji stood up, unbarred the door, and opened it. In the snow just outside the door stood a girl in light green robes. Her dark brown eyes connected with his as soon as he'd opened the door, and she brushed a lock of her shoulder-length black hair away from her face, smiling at him. Curiously, in spite of the snow falling from the sky, there wasn't a single snowflake anywhere on her, and any that came near seemed to simply curve around her body. "Hello Shinji," she said._

_ "Saya?" Shinji asked. "Aren't you cold?"_

_ Saya shrugged her shoulders. "A little. So, are you going to let me inside or what?"_

_ "Yeah, yeah. Come on inside." Shinji moved aside to allow Saya to pass. She stepped inside, "It's so nice and warm in here Shinji. It's almost like you were expecting me." Shinji knew Saya was playing dumb; they had made arrangements for today a few days prior. "So, how have you been doing?"_

_ Shinji turned to the stove and opened it. "I've been doing good."_

_ "How's the store?"_

_ Shinji picked up a log and pushed it into the stove. "I closed it at the start of winter. You know that. So what about you? Those Water Sages haven't been bothering you, have they?"_

_"No, no, they haven't." A pause. "I haven't seen Li around. Did he go somewhere?"_

_ "Yeah, he and his parents said they had to go to Shimoji, but he didn't-" Shinji had turned back, only to see that Saya wasn't anywhere in the room. "Where did you go?"_

_ "I'm right here." The door leading to Shinji's room (which hadn't been closed a few minutes before) slid open, revealing Saya. The first thing Shinji noticed was that Saya was wearing one of his shirts; then, he noticed she wasn't wearing anything else. Shinji took only one glance before looking away, a warm feeling creeping across his face._

_ "Oh come on Shinji. I'm getting all dressed up for you, so the least you can do is look. Well, I'm getting dressed _down_, but you get my point." Very slowly, Shinji turned back toward Saya. He confirmed that she was indeed wearing one of his shirts, though it seemed a little too large for her- her hands didn't reach the end of the sleeves, and the shirt stretched halfway down her thighs. Still, Shinji had an almost completely uninterrupted view of Saya's long, shapely legs, bringing yet another dark blush to Shinji's face._

_ "Why are you looking at me like that?" Saya asked, with just a little hint of playfulness in her voice. "It's not like this is anything you haven't seen before." That was most certainly true. Shinji had seen Saya in a lot less… but that had been in a completely different context! They had been swimming innocently in the ocean, but now…_

_ She beckoned to him; before he knew it, he was on his feet and standing in front of her. "Well, aren't we eager?" she said in an almost mocking voice, before pressing her lips against his. Shinji pulled back for a moment, but then began to return Saya's kiss. Shinji slowly began to wrap his arms around her waist, and in spite of himself, relaxed a little- he and Saya had kissed many times before, and the act helped put him at ease. He felt her place her hand on his own, and slide it up to her chest. She then placed her fingers over his and pushed them down, making him give her breast a small squeeze. He shivered; the two had done some… _experimental _touching, but that had only been happening for a few months. Still, Shinji wasn't completely at a loss of what to do, so without further prompting, he slowly began to massage Saya's breast, enjoying her soft moans of pleasure._

_ Abruptly, Saya pulled away, and let Shinji's shirt slide off, leaving her stark naked before him. Shinji stood gawking at her for several moments until she said, "Well, now it's your turn." It didn't take long for Shinji to catch on, and he stripped down as well. He looked away, embarrassed by Saya focusing intently on the throbbing erection between his legs. She bent down to get a better look. "Is that really what it looks like?" she asked; Shinji wasn't sure if the question was aimed at him, or if she was simply wondering out loud._

_ He let out a surprised gasp when she suddenly wrapped her hand around his manhood, and gave it a few light strokes. "Well, it certainly _feels_ the same." She stood up, keeping her hand wrapped around his member, and pulled him into another kiss, still stroking his erection. Shinji's heart pounded, and he could barely focus, but regardless, he slid his hands from Saya's waist to the small nest of moist folds between her legs. Her breathing became erratic as his fingers traveled over her intimate area, searching for one particular area; as soon as Shinji touched one small bump, Saya jumped, letting out a loud moan, and pushed herself against him. Knowing he'd found the right spot, Shinji continued to massage the small nub, listening as Saya's moans became louder and more erratic, until finally, she let out a loud squeak and she clenched around his fingers. Shinji fought the urge to pull away; the squeak was so unlike Saya that the first time it happened, Shinji thought he'd seriously hurt her._

_ Shinji let out a disappointed sigh when Saya again broke their kiss. "Don't worry Shinji," she said seductively. "We're not finished just yet. I think we should move somewhere a little bit more… _comfortable_." She began to guide him toward his bed, with no resistance on his part. When the two reached Shinji's small room, Saya slid the door closed, and laid herself down on Shinji's bed, opening her legs for him; without any further prompts (or thought on his part) Shinji unhesitatingly crawled on top of her. "Um… do you know how this is supposed to work?" Shinji asked uncertainly as he looked down at Saya._

_ "I think so. Just… go in slowly, okay?" She again took hold of his manhood, eliciting another surprised gasp from him, and guided it toward her entrance. He could feel the tip press against that warm, moist nest of folds, and again, he looked down at her uncertainly,waiting for some kind of reaction. "Go ahead," she whispered to him, and slowly, he began to slide inside of her, warmth enveloping the tip of his manhood. She tried to stifle a groan of pain, but failed; Shinji stopped and looked down, a worried expression on his face. "It's okay," she said, "keep going." He began pushing in again, and again, she tried and failed to stifle another pained moan. Concerned, Shinji began to pull out, but Saya wrapped her legs around his waist to stop him. "It's okay Shinji. I'll be okay. I promise you, things will get better." She smiled reassuringly at him. "Keep going."_

_ Shinji pushed in again, trying to block out Saya's pained moans, until he was fully seated inside of her. Saya's pain slowly subsided, to be replaced with a feeling of euphoria. Shinji's instincts took over, and slowly pulled back, before pushing forward again. Saya shivered, and she began to match Shinji's thrusts. His thrusts grew deeper and harder, and she tightened her grip around him, whispering, "Oh Shinji… that's it… go harder… _faster_…" He complied, again sliding his hand down to the nest of folds between her legs; as before, he searched for that one bump that caused Saya so much pleasure. As soon as he touched it, she cried out and arched her back, pressing her entire body against his; she reached up and wrapped her hands behind his head, pulling it down and forcing his lips against hers. They kissed as their bodies met over and over, holding each other tightly, moaning loudly in pleasure._

_ Shinji felt a pressure building inside him, growing more and more with each thrust. The rate it was building, Shinji thought he would explode. Then, Saya clenched around his member, driving him over the edge as well; he gasped as the pressure was suddenly released, and Saya moaned as she felt something warm fill her. When the blinding pleasure of their orgasms faded, the two collapsed, gasping for breath; Shinji caught his breath and rolled both so they were laying side-by-side. They held each other loosely, exhausted. She smiled and whispered, "Wow…"; he blushed and looked away slightly, but smiled as well. She began to pull herself closer to him, when she stopped and mumbled, "Hold on just a minute." Her hand darted down out of sight, remained for a few moments, before Saya sat up and flicked a long, milky-white needle of ice into the stove (which Shinji had neglected to close). She then wrapped her arms around Shinji again, with Shinji returning the favor. The two held each other, enjoying the warmth of the other's body, until the two drifted off to sleep._

_ Shinji awoke some time later. He rolled over, his eyes closed, a smile creeping across his face. Without opening his eyes, he whispered, "Good morning Saya." He opened his eyes in confusion when there was no response, to see that Saya's half of the bed was empty. "Saya?" he asked out loud, sitting up. The rest of his room was empty, so he reached over, put on his underwear and pants, and went out into the main room. As soon as he stepped out, something wrapped around his waist, pressing against him. "Good morning Shinji," Saya said from behind him. Shinji jumped slightly, but relaxed almost at once when he heard Saya's voice._

_ "Good morning," he replied. "So, how are you feeling?"_

_ "I feel fine. You?"_

_ "I'm okay." He felt Saya rest her chin on his shoulder. "So… about last night… did you…"_

_ "I actually had a lot of fun Shinji." Saya let go of Shinji's waist and circled around to his front- he saw she'd gotten dressed. "So what about you? Did you enjoy yourself?"_

_ "Definitely! But I just wanted to make sure that _you_ had a good time."_

_ "Don't worry. I had a great time." She paused for a moment. "So, what does this mean for us?"_

_ "It doesn't matter."_

_ The cheerful tone Saya had disappeared instantaneously. "What's that supposed to mean?"_

_ "Erg…"_

_ "None of this mattered to you? You were just playing with me this whole time?" Shinji opened his mouth to defend himself, but Saya was faster than him. "All this time you were just pretending to be my friend just so I would sleep with you! How could you do something so horrible! I hate you!"_

_ "Saya-"_

_ "No! I don't want to hear any more of your lies! I'm leaving!" Without another word, Saya hurried to the door and disappeared outside. Shinji, not bothering to finish getting dressed, called out for her, and ran out into the snow after her._

_

* * *

_

"I spent all day searching Misato, but I couldn't find her. So, I went back to her house; her parents said that she changed her mind about joining the Water Sages, and that they were taking her to Sage Island."

When Shinji ended his story, he looked over at Li; Li had buried his face in his hand. He looked up at Shinji and asked, "Why didn't you tell me about this?"

"I… I didn't think you needed to know about it."

"While I was gone, you… _were intimate_ with Saya. You made a mistake, she broke up with you, now she hates you, and she might hate me too. _How is this not something I'd need to know about?_" He rested his face in his palm again. "You should've told me sooner- at least we could have made a plan. What are we supposed to do now?"

"I don't know. All I can do is apologize to her and hope for the best."

* * *

**Yeah, this is my first time writing smut, and it probably shows. **


	6. Banishment

Chapter VI: Banishment

Shinji barely slept that night. He was worried, very worried- he had hoped, maybe a little selfishly, that Saya wouldn't have still been so upset about what happened between them, but he couldn't have been more wrong. Li was right- if he had told him about what happened with him and Saya, they could have worked out a plan. Now, it was too late, and they would simply have to hope that Saya would come with them. He tried desperately to think of a plan, but nothing came to him. Hours passed as he fretted, until eventually, the sky began to turn pink from the light of the rising sun. He heard Li stir nearby, and the sound of Li approaching; he said out loud, "I'm awake. …I couldn't sleep."

"Oh, well alright," he heard Li say, with no hint of tiredness.

Shinji sat up, and as he climbed out of his sleeping bag, Li began, "Shinji, about what I said yesterday-"

"No no, you were right Li. I should've told you about this a lot sooner. But right now, we need to think of a plan."

"Okay. Do you have anything in mind?"

Shinji thought silently for several moments, then said, "You know, as a matter of fact, I do. Why don't _you_ go in there and talk to her?"

"Me?"

"Well, yeah. Saya made it pretty obvious yesterday that she doesn't want to talk to me. But, maybe she'd be willing to listen to you."

"I don't know… what if she's upset with me too?"

"Why would she be? You haven't done anything. She couldn't possibly get upset with you just for showing up here with me."

"I guess that's true. But how are we supposed to get back inside?"

"I think you mean, 'How am I supposed to get back inside?' You're going to have to do this on your own; if she sees me there with you, she won't want to talk."

"What? Shinji, I can't do this by myself! You're the-"

"Li, come on. You saw what happened yesterday- you have to do this alone."  
"But… gah, _fine_. But how am I supposed to get back in?"

"I can lift you over the wall. But you're going to need this." Shinji reached into his pocket and gave Li his father's map. "Show this to her- it might help to convince her. Now let's get you over this wall."

"But what if she's not there?"

"Then we wait for her to come back. Now go over by the wall- I'll get you up to the top." Li did what was asked of him, and stood next to the wall. Shinji lowered himself into the stance his teacher had shown him, and slowly raised up his arm- in response, the ground beneath Li's feet slowly began to rise. Li stumbled slightly from the unexpected movement, but quickly regained his balance. After a moment, the column reached the height of the wall.

"Is she there?" Shinji called up to Li.

Li peered down over the edge of the outer wall; to his surprise, Saya was there. He looked back and called to Shinji, "She's here!" This caught Saya's attention, and she looked up to the top of the wall where Li stood. He saw her and called out, "Hey Saya!" She waved back to him and without a word, guided a large volume of water from the nearby pond toward the wall and froze it solid, forming a ramp from the top of the wall to the ground.

"Li, what were you doing up there?" Saya asked once he reached the ground.

"I wanted to talk to you about something."

"Really?" she asked, narrowing her eyes in suspicion.

Li paused for a few moments, thinking about what he was going to say next. "Saya… Shinji… he told me about what happened while I was gone."

"Really? What did he tell you? I'm sure he probably left a few things out to make himself look better."

"Saya, I'm not going to take sides on this. What happened between you and Shinji… well, that's something you two are going to have to work out on your own. And that isn't what I wanted to talk to you about anyway."

"Okay, so what did you want to talk about?"

"Well, about a month ago I suppose, Shinji and I found something up in his attic- a map." Li pulled Shinji's map out of his pocket and showed it to Saya.

Saya looked over the map for several moments. "Well okay, but I don't really see what this has to do with… wait, what's that?"She then pointed to the lower right corner of the map.

"Well, before I answer that, did Shinji ever tell you about his dad?"

"Yeah. He told me one time that his dad sometimes did some jobs for the Zhongese Mercantile Authority. Before he… you know, disappeared."

"Okay then." Li paused. "Shinji thinks his dad found something out there- this island. Shinji told me that after his dad and the other people he worked with found that island, they all started to disappear one by one. He wants to go out there and find out why."

"Okay, but I still don't see what this has to do with me."

"Because you can help us," Shinji's voice replied. Saya and Li looked over to the wall to see Shinji descending on a column of rock. "I figured you were creeping around here somewhere," Saya said to him disdainfully.

Shinji ignored her statement. "We'd have to get to the island by boat. Li's parents can send us one, but there's no way the two of us could reach it on our own. That _Long Li Wu_ thing you know could help us."

"I'm not interested."

"But Saya… you remember when we were little, and how you'd always wanted to go on an adventure? Well, there's an opportunity right in front of you, and now you're not gonna take it?"

"No. I have responsibilities to the Temple."

"Saya… I can't believe what you're saying. Y-You don't really believe in any of this stuff, do you?"

"So what if I do?"

"Saya, we've known each other for years- you were like family to me. Don't you remember all the good times we shared? Are… are you really going to throw all of that away just because of a grudge? You don't even want to talk about it first?"

"Saya?" Li asked. "Maybe you should reconsider this."

"And why should I do that?" she asked.

"Well… maybe it will give you a chance to sort things out between you and Shinji."

"You're out of your mind if you think I'm going anywhere with him."

At that moment, the water in the pond suddenly rose up around the platform, freezing itself solid in the form of a cage with numerous interlocking bars. Saya immediately shot her hand out, causing a small section of the cage to return to liquid; however, the water immediately whipped out and snapped across Saya's hand. "I wouldn't do that if I were you, Sister Saya," a voice then said.

The source was a stone-faced man standing at the entrance to the courtyard, wearing the dark blue robes of the Water Sages, his arm outstretched. He was completely bald, his cold gray eyes fixated on the frozen cage and its occupants. He approached, his arm still outstretched.

"Judicator Batou," Saya began, "I can explain this. These two-"

"Save your explanations," Judicator Batou interrupted. He stopped just in front of the cage, and directed his cold gaze towards Shinji and Li. "You two are in a great deal of trouble. You have been caught trespassing on sacred ground. I don't know what you were planning to do here, but I assure you, we've had your kind attempt this sort of thing in the past, and dealt with them severely."

Batou turned to Saya. "As for you, Sister… I don't know what sort of relationship you have with these two, and I won't pretend that I care. But, since you didn't attempt to immediately remove them from the interior of the Temple, I am going to have to assume that you three were cooperating in some way." He paused briefly. "As of now Sister, all your activities in the Temple will be suspended, with the potential for excommunication in the future."

At this, Saya was immediately at the bars closest to Batou. "Excommunication! You can't do that! You don't have the authority to-"

"You will speak to a Maester with proper respect, Sister," Batou interrupted again. "However, your fate will ultimately be decided by the Maester's Council." He turned his back toward the cage and made a signal with his hand- four fully armored guards then marched through the entrance, and took positions at each corner of the cage. "I would recommend that you make no further attempts to escape," Batou then said. "I was merciful when you made your first attempt- my guards may not be so merciful if you make any further attempts." As he began to walk away, Shinji mumbled, "You've got a funny definition of mercy."

At this, Batou stopped, and returned to the cage's side. "I will show respect for Sister Saya, as a fellow member of the Temple. However, _you_ are not even a member of our congregation, and a trespasser on top of that. If you step out of line at any time, I will kill you without blinking." Without another word, Batou turned and began to leave- Shinji nearly said something else, but decided to keep it to himself, not wanting to test the Judicator's ultimatum.

A few minutes passed before Li asked, "Who was that guy?"

"That was Judicator Batou. He's a Maester, and the head of the Inquisition."

"What's that?" Shinji asked.

"The Inquisition? Well in the past, it was made to stamp out heresy in the Church. Nowadays, the Inquisition is supposed to ensure cooperation between the different branches of the Temple. But all that changed when Batou became the Judicator. Ever since he took charge, it seems like he's been trying to bring back the good old days of the Inquisition."

Little else was said after that, and two hours passed before Batou returned. "Had it been up to me, Saya would have been excommunicated, and all three of you would have been executed shortly thereafter," he said as he came to a stop in front of the cage. "However, the terms of your punishment have been decided by the Praetor." Batou reached into his robes, removed a scroll, and unrolled it. He then read, "'By the order of Duo VI, Praetor and Grand Master of the Temple of the Water Dragon, Sister Saya, Knight of the Crusaders, is hereby demoted to the rank of Apostle. In addition, the two trespassers are henceforth barred from ever setting foot inside the Grand Temple again. Finally, both Sister Saya and the the trespassers are to be banished from Sage Island and are to be deposited at a location of Judicator Batou's choosing, effective immediately. Following six months, Sister Saya will be permitted to return to Grand Temple.'" Batou then mumbled quickly, "'All punishments listed here may be overturned at any time following their execution on the Praetor's authority as he or she sees fit."

He tucked away the scroll in his robe, and with a wave of his arms, withdrew enough of the cage's bars to make an opening. "As I said, the Praetor has banished the three of you from the island. I suggest that you follow me, and that you do so peaceably."

* * *

Several minutes later, the three found themselves being escorted out of the temple, and then below the deck of a small ship. Once the three had been ushered below deck, they were then directed into separate cells- Batou then disappeared from the slot in Shinji's cell door, and he then heard the hatch they climbed down through slam shut, a such quieter click following it almost immediately after. The boat suddenly lurched violently only a few moments later, but Shinji quickly regained his balance.

He looked around- the cell walls had no bars, windows, or any other kind of opening save for the slot in the cell's door. In the next cell, he could hear Saya mumbling angrily to herself, most likely about him- Li was silent. Shinji also kept his silence, partly because he didn't know what to say, and partly because he was sure he wouldn't get a response. Time passed- Shinji wasn't sure how much- as the boat presumably sped across the ocean, the three waiting in silence.

The boat lurched violently again, apparently coming to a halt. Shinji heard the hatch open, and the cell door swung open- Batou stood at the entrance. He said simply, "Get out." Shinji stepped out of the cell, and was pushed back up the steps to the deck. Before his eyes could fully adjust to the sunlight, however, he was pushed over the side of the boat. It was a brief fall, lasting less than a second, and Shinji found himself on one knee in something… soft- it wasn't especially soft, but it certainly wasn't the ocean water or rock he might have been expecting. Li, and then Saya soon joined him.

Shinji's eyes had adjusted to the light enough for him to see that a great expanse of sand laid before the three. Not a sign of life could be seen anywhere among the dunes. He looked back, rising to his feet- the Great Sea stood silently behind them, stretching as far as the eye could see, meeting the brown of sand at points to his left and right. The boat, which must have been much closer to the edge of the beach, was now rapidly speeding away across the glassy surface of the ocean. He heard the others rise to their feet behind him.

"Dokuro?" Saya asked, as she looked at the endless expanse of dunes in front of them. "He banished us to Dokuro?" She fell to her knees in despair. "Oh no… no, no no…"

"So that's where we are?" Shinji asked, turning to face the others. "Well, alright then. Come on Saya, don't worry- we'll figure a way out of this."

"No, Shinji! Don't you understand where we are? The Temple used to banish heretics here! We are going to die here! We're all going to die and it's your fault!" Saya was suddenly on his feet, pointing an accusing finger at Shinji.

"My fault? Why is this my fault?" Shinji asked.

"Guys come on, we can't be fighting like this," Li said.

Saya ignored him. "I said I didn't want to go with you! I told you I didn't want to go with you! But of course, _you_ wouldn't take no for an answer!"

"All I wanted was for you to sit down and talk about it! You weren't even willing to consider it for one second!

"Guys…"

"But I still gave you my answer! You should've respected that, _Shinji_!"

"This doesn't even have anything to do with going with us, does it? It's all about that grudge you still have with me over what happened six months ago!"

"_Guys…_"

"And so what if it is! You hurt me! You come to me, out of the blue, asking me to go with you to wherever the hell you were going without even apologizing first! What made you think that I would care about anything you had to say! And now, we're all going to die in the middle of a desert and it's your fault!"

"_Guys!_" A wall of fire suddenly burst from the ground between the two, catching them off guard and forcing them back. The flames dissipated, revealing Li, pushing Saya and Shinji apart, small flickers of fire igniting in the air around him. "_This isn't helping!_ I don't care whose fault it is that we're on this island, but arguing about it isn't going to get off this island any faster!" Li stood upright, the flickers disappearing, but he did not step out from between Saya and Shinji. "Our first priority should be to get water. Saya…" He looked over at Saya. "Get as much water as you can from the ocean. Shinji, I need you to make something that hold the water."

"Uh… Li?" Saya asked. "I don't mean to disrupt your plan-making process, but we _can't drink ocean water!_"

"I was getting to that. Shinji, after you finish making that container, I need you to separate as much salt from the ocean water as you can."

"I don't know if I can do that, Li," Shinji replied. "Rocks are just fine, but I don't think I can move salt the same way."

"Well, you remember those salt mines we heard about on the way to Fujisawa. Salt's earth, just like anything else. You should be able to move it just fine."

"And what will you be doing this whole time, Dear Leader?" Saya asked sarcastically.

"Well, I'll have to wait- I can't do the same things as you two. Once you guys finish, I guess I'll have to try out some of that water, and if I have to, I'll boil out the rest of the salt. Now we need to get started, because I am _not_ going to let any of us die in this desert."

A few minutes later, Shinji stood in front of a large stone pot filled with ocean water. Saya had filled it, and now he was preparing to separate the salt from the water as Li had instructed, though he was uncertain how. In the early days of his Shi Tui training, he quickly learned that he was unable to manipulate materials such as sand or dirt, with their large volumes of small particles. With practice, he learned to control such substances, though the effort required all of his concentration and any mistake would cause him to instantly lose his hold over it. Compounding his current problem however was that he had never tried to move earth that he couldn't see.

_Well_, he thought as he raised his hands above the water, _I suppose there's a first time for everything_. He first did as his teacher told him- he closed his eyes, and tried to feel the earth inside the pot. He could feel the rock under the sand, the sand itself, and the stone pot, but felt nothing in the pot itself. He tried to narrow his focus down to the water- he felt the stone fade, then the sand, and finally the pot. It was then that he noticed something in the water. It felt "blurry"- sand always felt that way when he sensed it, but unlike sand, he could only feel a faint presence from the salt. He began to raise his arms, feeling the presence rise with them- he moved slowly, knowing that if he moved too quickly, he would lose control and have to start again.

Shinji could feel the presence moving within the water, and opened his eyes to be sure he was performing the technique properly.; sure enough, a faint white cloud swirled just under the water's surface. He began to raise his arms slowly again- the white cloud followed, inching closer and closer to the surface. Finally, a white strand sluggishly rose above the surface of the water- all sand moved slowly when he tried to move it, but the salt moved especially slowly, being weighed down by water. Carefully, he guided the sand over the edge of the pot, and allowed it to fall to the ground.

"Come on Shinji, hurry up!" Saya called from under a small rock outcropping he had erected to shelter the three from the sun. "We need that water!"

"This isn't as easy as it looks Saya," he replied, though mentally, he agreed with her- the process was taking far too long. He then remembered something- whenever he handled sand, if he concentrated, he could compress it down into a single dense stone that was much easier to control than the loose pile of sand. He closed his eyes and focused again, finding the salt much more quickly this time. However, rather than trying to pull it up, he slowly brought his hands together, feeling the cloud of salt begin to shrink. The cloud grew smaller and smaller, until finally a fragment stood out clearly to him, and he lifted it above the surface of the water. Shinji opened his eyes- he then realized that the amount of salt he compressed was small, only the size of the tip of his finger. He was certain he could get more though, as he tossed away the salt fragment and tried again. He focused again, feeling the cloud grow smaller and smaller, and again, a small stone began to form. He focused harder, feeling the stone grow larger ever so slowly. He concentrated with all of his might, feeling the cloud shrink and the stone expand. His head began to pound painfully, but he couldn't stop, not when he was so close to finishing.

Finally, the cloud was gone. Shinji raised the stone out of the water to look at it- it was fairly large, about twice the size of his fist- before tossing it away. He rubbed his temple and called out, "Alright, I'm finished!" Li left the shade and approached the pot.

"Alright then," Li said." There's only one thing left to do. I have to try it." Cautiously, he dipped his hand in the water, scooped some into his hand, and brought it up to his mouth. After a moment's hesitation, he drank it.

"So, is it alright?" Shinji asked.

"Well… it has a little bit of salt in it, but I don't think it will kill us." Shinji scooped up some water as well and drank- as Li said, there was still a taste of salt, but the water seemed safe enough to drink. Saya approached and drank some of the water as well. "It seems alright. I have to hand it to you Shinji, I didn't think you could do it. So now instead of dying tomorrow, we'll die in a few more days."

"I told you already Saya, we're not dying in this desert," Li replied. "Now, does everyone have something they can hold water in?"

"I can make my own," Shinji replied, taking a small section of stone from the pot and shaping it into a small canister.

"I have this," Saya also replied, taking a water skin from inside her robes and showing it to the others.

"Okay, well I don't have anything; I didn't take my pack into the Temple with me. Do any of you have an empty bottle or something like that?" Shinji searched his pockets, but came up with nothing. "I don't have anything."

"Hang on, I think I have another water skin," Saya said, before searching inside her robes, and pulling out another, smaller skin. "Thanks," Li said as Saya gave him the skin. "Now we should fill these up, and Shinji, close up the top of that when we're finished."

The three filled up their containers, Shinji sealing the top of the pot, before sitting down under their shade. Li sat between the two, to prevent any more fights. "It wouldn't be very smart for us to go anywhere while the sun's still out. We should wait until nightfall," Li said.

"Why, Li?" Saya asked. "What are you expecting to find out there?"

"There has to be at least someone living out here…" Li replied. "…and even if there isn't, I doubt that you two are making plans on spending the rest of your lives on this island. Maybe we can find some trees and build ourselves a raft."

"Sounds like a plan. Well, it beats my plan anyway…" Shinji replied, before taking a drink out of his canister. "Staying here and dying on this island."


	7. The Desert Sage

Chapter VII: The Desert Sage

After many hours, the sun began to sink towards the horizon far to the west. Li then stood up and said, "It's getting dark. We should get going."

"Hey Li, if we're looking for people, or trees, why are we going through the desert at night?" Shinji asked. "How are we supposed to see anything?"

"Would you really want to be wandering through the desert in the middle of the day? And besides, it isn't like we'll be wandering around in the dark." Li held up his hand, igniting a bright flame roughly an inch above his palm. "If there are people here, they should have light- traveling now would make it easier to spot. And before I forget…" He pointed to the pot. "We need to take that with us."

"You can't be serious, Li. That thing is too heavy to carry."

"I think Li's right," Saya said. "Leaving this perfectly good water would be a waste, and we don't know how long it'll take before we find anyone here, if we ever do."

"Then how are we supposed to move that pot?"

"I guess you and I will have to carry it, Shinji. Come help me with it." She stood by the pot, and Shinji followed. "Okay, on the count of three. One… two… three!" Shinji and Saya lifted the pot off the ground- Shinji lifted the pot itself, and Saya moved the water within. "You got it Shinji?" Saya asked.

"Yeah yeah, I've got it."

"Do you have it?" Li asked. The two nodded. "Okay, let's go."

"Li?" Saya asked, as she and Shinji followed after Li. "What exactly are we supposed to be looking for out there?"

"We need to find some high ground so we can get a good look at the island."

"Well if we need high ground, I can lift myself up and check things out," Shinji replied.

"Let's wait until we get to the center of the island before we do that, okay Shinji?"

The sun set not long after the three set out, plunging the entire island into darkness. The only light came from the stars in the sky, and Li's small fire. The three passed through the desert sands in silence, keeping an eye out for any lights in the distance, but saw none. All of a sudden, Li stopped in his tracks.

"Is everything okay Li?" Shinji asked.

Several seconds passed before Li answered. "Did you guys hear something just now?"

"No…" A few moments later, there was a loud rumble from somewhere within the darkness. "But I did hear that." He and Saya set down the pot. Li brought up his other hand, igniting another fire, but the light did not reveal anything that could possibly have caused the rumble.

"Were you doing that Shinji?" Li asked.

"No, I was just following you," He replied

Another rumble sounded, much closer than the previous one. Suddenly, a fissure opened in the sand, and something burst forth from under the ground. In the light of the fire, the three saw that it was an enormous creature raising itself high above them, it's skin a deep, bloody red. It had no limbs, like a serpent- it's seemingly only feature was an enormous mouth full of teeth that shone in the light of the fire. It pulled the rest of its body out of the ground, and with incredible speed, circled around the three- impossibly, the sand behind the worm rose, forming a wall that completely surrounded them.

"Well this isn't looking good," Shinji said, stating the obvious. The great worm looked down at them, its mouth open, displaying all of its fangs to the three, its growls sounding like a deep rumble.

Suddenly, just as quickly as it had appeared, the wall of sand seemed to explode into a cloud of dust, blinding the three and putting out the fire. The great beast roared at some unseen enemy, and the ground shook violently, before all became still again. After a few moments, the fire was reignited. Shinji rubbed the sand out of his eyes and looked around; the worm was nowhere to be seen. "Thanks for getting the light back so fast, Li," he said, turning to the light, but stopped. The person with the light was most definitely not Li; instead, a mysterious person stood nearby holding a torch, its flame bright. The person was wrapped in heavy fabrics, obscuring everything except a small slit for his eyes; but even then, the person wore a strange pair of glasses with slits rather than lenses. "Are all of you alright?" the person asked- the voice was unmistakably that of a young man's.

"Yeah, I think we're fine," Shinji replied. "Saya, Li, are you okay?" Behind him, Li's voice answered, "We're okay Shinji!"

"You should consider yourselves lucky that I was here; not many have encountered a Master this far into their domain and survived. We should leave this place- I can take you somewhere safe."

"Sure, just give us a moment." Shinji was just about to reach for the pot, when he realized it was missing. "Uh-oh. Saya, do you see the water anywhere?"

"No, I don't see it over here." Looking back, Shinji saw just how far the explosion separated him from Saya and Li.

"Have you lost something?" The stranger asked. "I can find it for you." He waved his hand; incredibly, a large section of sand suddenly blew away, as though carried by the wind, but not even a slight breeze blew. With the sand cleared away. Shinji and Saya quickly found the pot, and lifted it with little difficulty. "Thanks for that," Shinji said as he and Saya carried to pot over to Li and the stranger.

"There must be something valuable in there for you to risk staying here any longer," the stranger said. "Wait here for just a moment." The stranger turned and began to walk away, disappearing behind a large dune. A few moments later, he returned, riding atop a strange object. The object appeared to be wooden platform, wide and low to the ground, standing atop two long skis. Between the skis was a sail, a spinning vortex of sand between the sail and the platform providing wind to fill the sail.

"Climb on," the stranger said. "This skiff will allow us to cross the desert with ease."

A few moments later, the three loaded their water supply onto the skiff, and climbed aboard. With a few fluid movements, the stranger recreated the vortex behind the sail, and the skiff sailed swiftly across the desert sands.

"Well, I guess that's one we owe you," Shinji called to the stranger over the sound of the wind.

The stranger called back, "Think nothing of it."

"Hey," Li said over the wind, "I don't mean to sound unappreciative, but why did you help us back there? You don't even know who we are."

"This island is a dangerous place, and now is not the time to speak about such things. …You three look weary- when we arrive you can rest, and then we can explain ourselves to each other."

"Well, can you at least tell us your name?"

"You may call me Keiichi."

Silence passed as the skiff sailed across the desert. Soon, a faint glow appeared in the distance, hidden by the surrounding dunes. As the skiff climbed over the dunes, they could see the source- a sprawling city of short, white buildings. Impossibly, sitting in the center of the city was a fairly large lake. "There is our destination," Keiichi said over the wind. "Oasis." Before long, the skiff came to a halt outside a building at the very edge of the desert. "Here we are," Keiichi said as he leaped off the skiff. "I know it doesn't look like much, but I can provide each of you a warm bed every night and a hot meal every day."

"That's very generous of you," Li said.

"Among my people, hospitality is a virtue." Keiichi pushed the door to his home open, with the three following. "You see, all the people who live in Oasis are…" He paused for a moment, then shook his head. "That is a story for another time. You should rest now." The three watched as Keiichi pulled out a number of blankets from a chest. "I'm afraid I don't have any beds to spare at the moment, so you'll have to make do with these. I apologize."

"Oh, well I guess that's alright," Saya replied as Keiichi handed her a blanket. He then handed the other two blankets to Shinji and Li. "I'll be going off to bed then. Goodnight."

"Yeah me too," Li replied. With nothing else to do, Shinji laid himself down on the floor, pulling the blanket over himself. He must have severely underestimated how tired he was, because before long, he had fallen asleep.

* * *

Shinji suddenly found himself climbing up a hill made of dry, cracked earth. He didn't know where he was, or why he was climbing the hill, but he knew that at the top, something very important was waiting for him. After a few minutes, the ground leveled out, before coming to a sheer drop only a few yards away. He came to a stop a few feet away from the edge and looked around- in front of him, far below, he could see the waters of the ocean swelling at the base of the cliff. Fragments of land surrounded the water, all dropping straight down into the waters below. The land surrounding the hole was jagged and broken, and in some places it was possible to see the endless expanse of the Great Sea beyond. Something about the whole place felt… unnatural, as though the land had once been whole, only to be broken apart by some great and terrible force.

As Shinji looked about, he suddenly became acutely aware of something. He could hear… whispering, the same whispers he heard when he first found the map in his attic. The whispers seemed to be beckoning to him towards the edge. He stopped just short of the edge, but still, the whispers did not cease. If anything they seemed stronger, beckoning him over the edge of the cliff. But that was crazy. Why would they beckon him over the edge? Surely the fall would kill him.

But suddenly, Shinji lifted his foot and moved it over the edge. He was shocked, and instantly tried to withdraw his foot, but as hard as he tried, he could not do so. It was as though his body moved of its own will, without any guidance on his part. He slowly began to put his weight forward, in spite of himself, and toppled over the edge. He plummeted down the face of the cliff- the wind rushed past,obscuring his vision, but he could still see the water rushing up to meet him. But just as he was about to make contact with the water…

* * *

Shinji woke with a start. He looked around- the room was dark, but he could see bright slivers of light shining on the walls. Saya and Li were still asleep.

"You have awakened," a hushed voice asked. Shinji looked to its source; sitting in a nearby chair, he could see, presumably, Keiichi. He didn't appear to be wearing the wrappings over his face, but there wasn't enough light to make out his features. "Did you sleep well?"

"Yeah," Shinji replied.

"As I said, I do not have much, but you may stay with me as long as you need to."

"That reminds me… you were saying something yesterday about hospitality. Maybe now you could tell us."

"Not here- I do not wish to disturb your companions. We shall discuss this outside." He stood and made his way to the door. Shinji followed him outside. After a moment, his eyes to the sunlight; in front of him, the short white buildings from the night before stretched off to his right. On his left, the desert dunes stood silently.

In the light, Shinji was able to see his host's face for the first time. His skin was dark brown, no doubt from being under the scorching sun of this desert. His eyes were also dark brown, appearing nearly black in the bright light outside. His hair, however, was unlike any he had ever seen before- it was short, like his own, but was a strange pale gold color, appearing almost white, with scattered dark flecks of brown.

Keiichi asked, "You are curious about my hair, are you?" noticing Shinji's attention. Without waiting for an answer, he continued, "I have the sun to thank for that. When I was younger, my hair was much darker. You shall see soon enough that most people who live in Oasis are like this." He paused. "Now, I shall answer your other question.

"Around three hundred years ago, a man named Hanataro traveled across the seas, teaching others of the path to enlightenment. However, Hanataro drew the ire of the Temple of the Water Dragon. In those days, the Temple was very… _militaristic_ about their beliefs, and frowned upon alternate paths to enlightenment tremendously. Agents of the Temple captured Hanataro and brought him to their Temple, intending to try him for heresy. He was found guilty, and was sentenced to exile on an island they called Dokuro- _this_ island. Obviously, the Temple did not intend for Hanataro to survive, but as he wandered across the desert, he soon came face-to-face with the Great Masters."

"The Great Masters? Are you talking about that giant worm thing?"

"Indeed. Most outsiders are unaware of their existence, although some seem to know of them. Those that do refer to the Great Masters as "olgoi-khorkhoi," although I have also heard the term "sand-worm" used in the past. Regardless, Hanataro found himself confronted by a trio of Great Masters. Another man would have fled, and no doubt would have been devoured by the Masters; but Hanataro stood his ground against them. This surprised the Great Masters; never before had a human stood against them, and they began to form a certain kind of respect for Hanataro. You see, the Great Masters are quite intelligent, even though they do not speak a language humans can understand. They could see that Hanataro had a certain strength within, so they did not consume him. Instead, they opened a path to a massive cavern that lies under this desert, and showed him their ways."

"What do you mean by 'their ways?'"

"Surely you saw it for yourself- how the Great Master moved the sand of the desert as though it was an extension of himself. This skill is what they taught to Hanataro. Over time, he learned to move the sand as the Great Masters did, and emerged from the cavern, before a great lake at the very heart of the desert. He built a home there, and for the rest of his life Hanataro wandered across the desert, searching for those who had been abandoned just as he had. He would then present those he found to the Great Masters, and if they were found worthy, the Masters would bring them to their caverns and teach them their ways. Over time, he combined his philosophy with the survival skills he learned here, and the techniques the Great Masters taught him into what he called The Way of the Desert- _Sha Mo Dao_, or simply Dao as most refer to it."

A moment passed before Keiichi asked, "So, if you don't my asking, what was so important in that jar that you would risk remaining in the Great Master's domain?"

"Water. It was all the water we'd managed to gather up before you found us."

"I wasn't aware that there was a well that far from Oasis."

"There isn't. We managed to purify a good amount of ocean water before you found us."

Keiichi's eyes widened slightly. "That's quite an unusual skill."

"Yeah. And it's one we're going to need when we get off of this island."

"Why?"

Shinji looked over to Keiichi. "Well, before I answer that, I need to ask you a question of my own: what do you know about the islands of the Great Sea?"

"Hmm… I know Sage Island lies somewhere to the north of Dokuro, and that we have some trade with the island of Jia to the south. I also know that there are islands farther to the east, but I don't know anything about them."

"My friends and I were going to be sailing to an island to the southeast of here. We might be traveling for weeks at a time, and obviously there won't be places to get fresh water- but if I knew a skill like Sha Mo Dao, me and Saya would be able to make ocean water drinkable. Maybe, you'd be able to teach me before we left here."

"I… I cannot. I do not have the authority."

"Huh? What do you mean you don't have the authority?"

"Only the Great Masters can teach the Way of the Desert. If you truly wish to learn, then you must enter their domain and confront one- then, if he deems you worthy, he will show you the way."

Shinji looked out over the desert- the distant dunes of sand shimmered in the waves of heat rising up from the desert. "If you intend to learn the Way, then you must depart now- after the morning, the desert sands becomes impassable, even to the Masters." Shinji began to walk out into the desert when Keiichi said to him, "I will awaken your companions and inform them of what has occurred."

Shinji stopped for a moment. "I need you to tell them one more thing- tell them that I found a way off this island, and that I'll explain everything when I come back."

When _he comes back? How presumptuous_, Keiichi thought to himself; however, he replied simply, "Of course." With nothing else to say, Shinji continued onward into the desert.


End file.
